Is it Legal?

**Simon Phoenix** · 01-06-2010 06:26 PM

is it legal for there only to be 1 cable company in your area?where i'm from there is only Cox Communications,and there prices are outrageous.i know i can get satelite and blah blah, i'm working on getting fios but it's not installed in my area yet.but i was trying to switch my cable company and there isn't another one besides cox in my area, isn't there Anti Monopoly laws?theres no competition so they charge whatever they want.there only competition is satelite and it's winter around here so satelites go out everyday but only one cable company, Dam Cox!!!!!

**poshyterra** · 01-06-2010 07:05 PM

out where i live, we have one cable company and that's armstrong. there's another one kinda close but they don't service my area.

we got directTV. get it, you'll love it. my dish never goes out and we just got about a foot of snow.

**Eris** · 01-06-2010 07:09 PM

Anti-monopoly laws don't work that way. They prevent companies from buying up the competition so that they end up being a monopoly. There are typically no laws against being the only company to exploit a market.

**Capernicus** · 01-06-2010 07:12 PM

It's called a government-granted monopoly. Sometimes providing a specific service to a specific area is very expensive. In this case, constructing and maintaining cable wires. If competition were to exist in this service, it would mean that many companies would have to erect cables. That would then decrease the amount of consumers who would buy this service from any one provider, meaning the fees would need to be increased to cover costs. In order to keep prices low, the government sponsors such monopolies to keep consumers happy with affordable services and companies happy with profits. That is the theory anyway.

These exist in America as telephone companies, electric companies, gas company, cable company, water companies, waste companies, and basically every utility available.

**RenegadeC4v** · 01-06-2010 07:22 PM

I dont think anti monopoly laws apply when its just one town or small area. How much are they charging you?

**wolfgirl90** · 01-06-2010 07:26 PM

Originally Posted by Gizmo Duck

is it legal for there only to be 1 cable company in your area?where i'm from there is only Cox Communications,and there prices are outrageous.i know i can get satelite and blah blah, i'm working on getting fios but it's not installed in my area yet.but i was trying to switch my cable company and there isn't another one besides cox in my area, isn't there Anti Monopoly laws?theres no competition so they charge whatever they want.there only competition is satelite and it's winter around here so satelites go out everyday but only one cable company, Dam Cox!!!!!

I think you are mistaken. There are "Anti-Competition" laws that protect companies and consumers, however, there are no laws against having a monopoly since having a monopoly in a market, in an of itself, is not illegal.

In your situation, Cox is simply the only cable company around, so yeah, of course they have a "monopoly" on cable in the area and are of course allowed to charge whatever they want. They simply have no competition in the market. The law can't force another cable to move into your area or force Cox to allow more competition simply because you do not like their prices.

**Capernicus** · 01-06-2010 07:35 PM

Originally Posted by wolfgirl90

I think you are mistaken. There are "Anti-Competition" laws that protect companies and consumers, however, there are no laws against having a monopoly since having a monopoly in a market, in an of itself, is not illegal.

There are some legalities involved in maintaining a monopoly though. Thus all the negotiations and such when big companies merge or acquire other companies, like Sirius and XM and other big mergers the names of which currently escape me, they have to go through a lot of red tape. There's a lot of government pressure put on such companies and close watching once the dust settles.

I don't know legalities however, and am too lazy to go wiki some. Someone else jump in here cuz I feel like I'm blowing a lot of hot air without anything concrete to back it up.

**Aki no iko** · 01-06-2010 08:13 PM

Well, to say the least, it does not depend on legalities to have one cable management in one area. However, as Capernicus stated, there are laws preventing an overall dominant management from crushing all the little companies.

**Simon Phoenix** · 01-06-2010 08:22 PM

yea so direct tv huh..........lol, dam i hate cox!!!!!but i guess i have to deal with them untill i get something else.

**wolfgirl90** · 01-07-2010 06:42 PM

Originally Posted by Capernicus

There are some legalities involved in maintaining a monopoly though. Thus all the negotiations and such when big companies merge or acquire other companies, like Sirius and XM and other big mergers the names of which currently escape me, they have to go through a lot of red tape. There's a lot of government pressure put on such companies and close watching once the dust settles.

I don't know legalities however, and am too lazy to go wiki some. Someone else jump in here cuz I feel like I'm blowing a lot of hot air without anything concrete to back it up.

You were quite close. Like I said, simply having a monopoly in a market is not illegal (that would be, in our capitalist society, just a bit stupid). Its the practices that those companies execute that are controlled by laws (and as you pointed out, even business mergers are watched over to make sure that they go well). Practices such as tying, price gouging, predatory pricing and any practice that prevents free trade are considered abusive conduct and there are laws to control such practices.

In Gizmo Duck's case, Cox Communications is simply the sole cable provider. While they may have a monopoly on cable, they do not have a monopoly on local broadcast services altogether (which is required for a firm to be a true monopoly; if there are substitute goods that are comparable to each other, then there is no monopoly). They (apparently) still need to compete with DirectTV and their services, so they can only go so far when it comes to their prices, as a person can easily switch from them to DirecTV.

**Daenerys** · 01-07-2010 09:37 PM

Do your research, there's usually 2-3 cable companies in any given county in america, unless you live in an area where it's rare to have electricity and running water.

Someone was whining about us only having Cox Communications out here, but we also have Aldelpha and some other internet company (I don't remember the name because they NEVER advertise), but they both suck, and have outages at least once a week for internet/cable. It's not that there's only Cox in your area, is that, that's the only one that's being heavily advertised.

But pretty much what Cap said.