To many, Comcast is a Godsend. To others they are the devil! I am kind of in between. I love the fact that their Hi Speed Internet is truley high speed (although that can at times be debatable). However, the fact that they are THE ONLY cable company you can really get is a bit frustrating. Or are they?
Years back I was involved in trying to help get a movement pushed in the Tri City area for a fiber optic cable Internet service that would be run by the city or cities. This effort was quickly smashed by Comcast and their supporters. Why? Because offering the people of this area an actual choice would serve to damage the ability of Comcast to make money. Sure they would still have the vast majority of the area as their customers, however that would slowly begin to dwindle as time went on. And they could not have that. No. Not at all. So they used their great advantage of money and their friends in the various city halls to kill the proposal before it went to a vote. The following year, the same was tried again, and it actually made it to a vote. But by then the support was not enough to beat Comcast, who was very well engrained in the fiber of the community.
Now we are all aware that monopolies are illegal in America. Funny however how many companies can be considered a monopoly if you take a close look at how they operate and where they operate. Now take a close look at Comcast in this area of the Midwest and you would see that they are running a monopoly on the cable industry. Or are they? Today you have many options with regards to Internet service and who provides that service for you. If you take a look online you can find a few companies that are willing to send you the equipment you need through the mail and will set you up with service. But are these companies viable and will they provide reliable service? Especially when you compare what they are actually giving you with what Comcast can give you. Plus, Comcast is a local company. You can literally drive to one of their offices and pick up your modem if need be. Some of these companies are totally viable options. Look at AT&T. They will give you Internet service and they can now do that along with phone and Satellite TV service too. Then you have places like COX or WOW. Both of these companies can provide you with Internet service.
So in a world where just 5 years ago you could look at a company such as Comcast in an area such as the Midwest, and you could call them a monopoly. Today that has changed. The options are starting to come out of the woodwork because technology is growing at an ever increasing rate. The only thing that remains from the days of Comcast running a monopoly is their lack of great customer service. They do an OK job, but that's just it. They do not strive to provide customer service that will blow you away. They are content with just giving you service that will suffice. Since their competition is just starting to really become a viable. They are still not being effected by better service provided by those competitors. Soon however. Soon they will feel the pinch and be forced to do it better. The only problem is we want the better customer service now.
So there you have it. Comcast, not the monopoly they once were, but still in effect a monopoly in how they do business. Does this affect us, the customer? Sure it does. Although we have more options today, the service we get from any one provider is average. I have not heard any reports to the contrary or that make one company really stand out. Everything is just the status quo. Just make do.. that must be the motto of most companies today. Or at least the ones with old money behind them. Because the way the economy is only the new business or the struggling business will go out of their way to please the customer. Everyone else is just happy to get through a transaction. What they should be happy about is having a customer in the first place, and act like it!
