The access monopolies strike again

Now that the RBOC’s have used their control of your telephone lines to eliminate nearly all their competition for the DSL market, they’re using us their control of DSL to keep competitors out of the local market. SBC, Verizon, and BellSouth customers who sign up for competitive local service are losing their DSL service.

“I would like to have the business,” but there’s no way to do it, says Zeke Robertson, senior vice president of SBC’s DSL division. “Few people understand the complexity of doing two services over a single line.”

Yeah, right. The WSJ story points out that you can still buy competitive DSL service (where it still exists) if you keep the RBOC as your local phone carrier. It probably doesn’t hurt that DSL services are sold with annual contracts, which phone service (so far) is not.
This is a business practice that only a monopoly can get away with.AT&T Broadband charges more for high-speed Internet service if you don’t buy cable TV service from them.

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