[governance] [JNC - Forum] On the death of neo-liberalism

[Mueller, Milton L]

Barry 

> -----Original Message-----
> We broke up the AT&T monopoly in the US and now, for example, 4
> companies (Verizon, AT&T barely related other than in name, T-Mobile,
> Sprint) account for probably 90+% of the smart phone market.

Your facts are wrong about market structure and shares.
There are 4 or 5 wireless carriers in every US market except for a few extremely remote ones, where there are probably 2.
There are at least 2 broadband fixed carriers in 60-70% of US markets and here in Atlanta, there are 3 and a new 4th one (Google) coming. 
As the capabilities of mobile broadband and smartphones increase, there are already people who consider their wireless carrier to be a substitute for broadband fixed. There are numerous handset manufacturers, whereas prior to the breakup your terminal equipment was integrated with the phone company and you had no choice. 

If you don't see the difference between this situation and the AT&T monopoly circa 1980, you have a lot to learn about industrial organization, markets and technology. 

I know it's seemingly cool to complain about the lack of perfect competition but broadband infrastructure is expensive and you're not going to get as many of them as gas stations. 

--MM

> 
> "The top 5 wireless telecommunications facilities-based service providers by
> subscriber count in the United States are:
> 
>   Verizon Wireless: 141.4 million (Q1 2016)
>   AT&T Mobility: 130.4 million (Q1 2016)
>   T-Mobile US: 65.5 million (Q1 2016)
>   Sprint Corporation: 58.8 million (Q1 2016)
>   U.S. Cellular: 4.9 million (Q1 2016)"
> 
>   source:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_wireless_communicati
> ons_service_providers
> 
> I include #5 to show how it's less than 10% of #4 and compared to the top 4
> taken together #5 accounts for 1% market share.
> 
> For last-mile internet most people have a choice of Verizon or whoever their
> regional telco is, Comcast, or a very few others also mostly by region, two
> maybe three per region, other than some tiny players (Hughes Satellite
> anyone?)
> 
> I suppose one could argue that having two or three choices is better than just
> one but it doesn't strike me as some grand victory of market competition.
> 
> Here in Boston if I want more than fairly stodgy DSL, a few mb/s, my choice
> is: One. Comcast. End of choices. Other than commercial service running
> closer to US$1,000/month, entry.
> 
> The word oligopoly comes to mind, with regional monopolies.
> 
> There's a bit more competition in wired office buildings in business districts
> tho not often within one wired office building. It gets complicated due to
> reselling etc., you might have a contract with RCN which is just renting and
> reselling fiber from Verizon, for example.
> 
> We can imagine some sort of competitive market and how wonderful it
> would be but there isn't much in existence largely due to the capital
> requirements of cable infrastructure, rights of way, cell tower licensing,
> legacy, cross-subsidization, etc -- the same old problems. And of course
> protective regulation.
> 
> Perhaps it's different in other countries but I'm not even sure what the point
> of this discussion is. We might as well be talking about the virtues of unicorn
> racing which likely would also benefit from more than one unicorn in the
> race. Who's to argue?
> 
> --
>         -Barry Shein
> 
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