The Phone Companies Still Don't Get It

[dent]

According to BuisnessWeek, the big phone companies still don't understand the world of the consumers.

Originally Posted by Excerpt

In case you haven't been keeping score, after the original phone company, American Telephone & Telegraph, was broken up in 1984, the country was left with eight major regional telcos. Over the past decade these companies proceeded to gobble one another up. Now there are four: AT&T, Verizon (VZ ), BellSouth (BLX ), and Qwest (Q ). Just keeping track of the mergers and names is an endless challenge: The "new" AT&T is actually the rechristened SBC, based in Austin, Tex., which acquired the venerable name last year -- and it's in the process of buying BellSouth. That will leave two phone giants, Verizon and AT&T, and the much smaller Qwest. The biggest wireless carriers are Verizon Wireless, majority owned by Verizon, and Cingular, which is soon to be wholly owned by AT&T. It's not exactly the return of the old Ma Bell monopoly -- the world has gotten way too complicated for that -- but that's a lot of power in the hands of just two companies.

The author lements the struggle between the giants, the impact it has on the customers, the lack of research by said giants, and more. Its an interesting read.

[Sapphire]

But wouldn't it be true that the bigger the company, the better the offer they can give you? As long as there isn't a monopoly, there is still competition. I would think that a corporation as huge as AT&T would have enough business volume that they could offer the lowest rates. Whereas a smaller company might have to charge more.

[Marlin]

Not necessarily. The big phone companies kjnow that they don't have much competition, so as long as they stay about equal to other big companies and just snatch up the small ones, we're screwed.

There is no other service in my town but Time Warner.

[Pauly]

Yeah, I am kind of scared of it becoming a Monopoly. My income often varies and I don't want to have to pay a lot more for phone service which was previously cheap.

[Scooby Dooby]

I am not all that worried. What is the worst that can happen?

[Dark Angel]

Originally Posted by Scooby Dooby

I am not all that worried. What is the worst that can happen?

The worst that can happen is the price increases at such an alarming rate that you can't afford it anymore. Then what ya gonna do?

[Squeeker]

Originally Posted by Pauly

Yeah, I am kind of scared of it becoming a Monopoly. My income often varies and I don't want to have to pay a lot more for phone service which was previously cheap.

I don't think it can ever become a monopoly again. I just think it will come down to a few strong companies. Not a lot of competition for anyone, but still some competition.

[Reader1]

I'm not worried, because there are still smaller companies. Even if there weren't, if you have two biggies, they will keep each other in check. The government steps in if a monopoly happens (which isn't an ideal scenario, anyhow, because I think the market ultimately works itself out anyhow, but hey, this is Big Govt America, sigh.)