Duopoly Follies!

Whoa what a week! The duopoly keeps outdoing themselves.

We all know our duopolists hate competition. These clowns prefer dirty tricks to playing fair, so the Tennessee Cable Telecommunications Association sues to stop fiber deployment instead of competing. Law requires limited access to some infrastructure for competitors. Never mind the law, AT&T blocks competition in Connecticut.

AT&T just introduced flat rate wireless, and they will probably looking to cut costs. For starters, AT&T decided to put quite a few partners out of business by closing down dealer retail locations. They’ve also managed to charge a Florida small business $83 /month for what was quoted in writing as a $47/month voice plan. When the owner called to cancel, she was charged a $600 penalty. So much for helping small business.

Business customers are not alone in being the victims of creative billing. In this week’s follies, Qwest Charges $33 for doing absolutely nothing. Not to be left out, Verizon gladly bills wireless customers for misleading and questionable third party ring tone service.

Want to copy Verizon and sue for fun and profit? AT&T could owe you $146,000!

And what about the Cable Guys? This week, Comcast is sued again for traffic shaping,and is suspected of cheating on bandwidth tests. They’ve also been busy trying to positively spin questionable practices at ongoing FCC hearings. Disgruntled Comcast customers have been fighting back and winning with increasing frequency.

In what seems to be a constantly recurring headline, Time Warner raises prices.