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Politics : Electoral College 2000 - Ahead of the Curve -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (6282)	12/14/2000 5:36:59 PM
From: globestocks	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 6710

It's not a monopoly, but entry into the market is heavily restricted by high fixed costs. A few dominant players, Edison, Duke, PG&E control the utilities in CA. Let me give you another example- AT&T purchased Media One over a year ago. I moved recently, so I needed to hook up my cable service. What followed next pissed me off so much I'm considering cancelling my cell phone and long distance, both of which are run by ATT. Basic Service was $47 for 30 channels plus a $50 installation fee. What installation fee, they already own the line of cable in my apartment anyway. When I had Media One, basic service was $27, just last year. ATT however, is pushing prices up on basic service so they can fund their digital cable service, which is only $10 more and there is NO INSTALLATION FEE. Why not, considering they have to hire a person to install the digital cable box at my apartment. Obviously, since there is no local cable competition, except from Satellite services, ATT has raised its basic service to offset the losses they are taking for their digital cable.