Cable companies need competition statewide
What do you suppose happened when Texas started allowing competition in cable service? If you said prices dropped, then go to the head of the class. That is exactly what happened. Competition works every time it is tried.
Then it seems that it should be time to give our cable companies in North Carolina a little friendly competition. This will most assuredly benefit consumers. Cable companies have had a free rein for way too long and we have seen our costs rise. If we begin state franchises and allow phone companies, as well as others, to compete for our business, we will see better rates and better service.
Lexington currently has such a system and cable rates are 25 percent lower, from the same cable company, than the immediate surrounding areas. We should all be allowed to shop around for the best price and service in cable. Why should cable companies have a monopoly?
As a small-business owner, I have to compete against my competitor. Why should the cable company not do the same?
Joyce Krawiec
Kernersville
Comments (3)
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Great letter.
Now apply this same logic to every service the government provides. Let there be competition in education, healthcare, etc.
Posted on April 6, 2006 7:21 AM
First of all I totally agree. However, I don't really expect that to happen any time soon. Our tax system is based on a precentage. Therefor our government gets more revenue from higher cable bills then they would from lower ones. Same goes with the phone company and the power company. The whole thing is ridiculous.
Posted on April 6, 2006 9:13 AM
I agree with the LTE that competition does keep prices down, but there is a difference with cable, phone, and power companies versus a restaurant or dept. store.
What is not addressed here is the massive amount of capital the cable, phone, and power companies invest in infrastructure and the maintenance costs for this infrastructure.
What do we do, have the state tell Time Warner that they need to allow their infrastructure to be used by competitors? Is any other company willing to spend $$ to create a duplicate infrstructure? Cell phone companies have done this to some extent, but cable, land line phones, and especially power generation are much more capital intensive.
Don't get me wrong, I don't enjoy paying $110/month for my cable TV & Internet but I'm still willing to pay for a premium service. There are some other choices such as satellite TV, but I don't think it's any cheaper.
Most of us probably feel we pay too much for electricity, but once it's out that Duke Power repairman becomes your best friend.
Posted on April 7, 2006 2:41 PM