What is the deal with this!?! There are some businesses in this country that operate in a setting of “monopolistic competition.” I know this sounds like an oxymoron, but trust me this is an actual economic term. What it means is a few top companies occupy a given market, like automakers. This can actually be good because it promotes quality, yet the consumer still has some choices, even if limited. Other companies operate under even more monopolistic circumstances, like the power company. However, utilities are fairly highly regulated, more in some states than in others, but either way, if the power company gets itself into a situation where it’s customers don’t have power, you better believe it’s on the case to fix the problem in a big hurry, before it gets itself into hot water with the powers that be. The phone company was a monopoly, once. Then the government broke it up. Then it broke it up again. Now you have lots of choices as to who will carry your long distance or local phone business. This is good – quality improves, prices drop, and we all feel better because we picked who we want. “How does this work, Jung? Isn’t there just one set of phone lines running across the country?” Yes, one company owns and maintains the phone lines. Rather than undergo the extremely inefficient process of removing and replacing lines, running several sets of lines under streets and across rural areas, Congress deemed that the best way to handle this would be to make the company that owns the lines rent them to other communication service providers, who can offer the consumer different rate plans, etc. It’s a great system, and it works. So can someone please tell me why this isn’t the case with cable? This is absolute insanity. The cable company that serves, er…torments the area I live in has brought some neat features with it. In order to push their digital cable product, costing between $54 and $70 dollars a month depending on your package, recently decided it was going to deny “extended basic” users the ability to purchase premium channels, like HBO, or pay-per-view specials. Sorry, you have to have the digital box now.
So your $42 bill would go up at least $12 just for having the box (not counting the installation charge), and then if you wanted the other stuff, it’s extra. Well I never watch premium anything, so that didn’t bother me, but the principle of it sure did. Another fun stunt they pulled was raising the extended basic (this is the package where you get your regular cable channels like MTV, ESPN, MSNBC, etc.) rate $8 a month, but in an effort to placate consumers, offered a “vote” for three or four “new” channels. The winners? I don’t know, SoapNet, I guess? Like most on-the-go folks, I watch very little TV. Certainly not enough to warrant $42 dollars a month. So I tried to downgrade. For $12 a month, I can get the network channels, local access and CSPAN. This is plenty enough TV for me. I’d rather cancel cable altogether, but supposedly it’s the only access this day and age to quality reception, and there are a few network shows over the course of a season that I enjoy, including local sports broadcasts and the news. Again, because of the little amount of TV I watch, I’m not going to undertake the labor and expense of installing an antenna on my house. The only other choice a consumer has is to install a satellite dish, and again this is counterproductive for someone who doesn’t watch much television. So, a virtual hostage of this company, I take the $12 package. Of course, I had to pay a $20 to downgrade. That’s right, a charge for less of a product. Why? Because they had to send a serviceman out to put a special block on my line, because, and I quote the customer service rep I spoke to, “nobody really goes with the $12 package.” The idea being that all of my neighbors are at least at the $42 dollar level, so it’s a special trip when a freak like me doesn’t want to pay that much for SoapNet.
Today was downgrade day. I was looking forward to it, actually. No more temptation to watch newsmagazines or incessant sports highlights. I decided to check to make sure that indeed the service man had been out – he was, no more upper channels. However, no basic channels either. Well that’s not entirely true, they are there, one or two of them come in, but the picture is so bad on the rest of them I can’t watch them. These are the basic channels I’m supposed to be getting for my $12, NBC, ABC, etc. Clear as a snowstorm. Now I’m dreading the call, where I will wait in queue for 45 minutes before even speaking to a rep about the problem, where I’ll be told that in 4-6 weeks, maybe someone can take a look at the problem, after all, why worry about me? I’m only spending $12 when everyone else is spending 4 times that, and secondly, what am I going to do about it? Take my business elsewhere? They’ve got me over a barrel and they know it. What I can’t understand is why in this great nation of competition and free enterprise, this one isolated industry, such a part of modern American life for better or for worse, is allowed to operate this way. This is a call to action, ladies and gentlemen. This horrible, indescribable madness must be stopped. Please, call or write to your representatives in congress today and tell them to force the cable industry to compete for your business like everyone else.
There is an evil presence lurking in the American midst. Insidious, as Evil so often is, it lures its unsuspecting prey with false promises never intended to be kept, of possibilities that can never be reached. What is this phantom menace that stalks innocent souls? Government? Big Business? Marxism? Nay, my friends, nay – it is far more horrible. Disease? Famine? Alack, it occupies a form more hideous than even these plagues, which pale by comparison. And chances are that this twisted, black monster has found its way into your very living room. Of course, I could be referring to none other than your cable TV provider.