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Comment by mfisher87 | Hacker News Reader

It seems like the idea of going AT&T on modern corporations is completely off the table. Any time I bring this up, people look at me like I'm pro-tyranny.

Break them up. They're holding our nation back and don't deserve to use us as a crutch.

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We live in a country where our public officials openly state that companies are "too big to jail", and they are unwilling to prosecute them for wrong doing because it could cause "systemic failure".

http://www.americanbanker.com/issues/178_45/ag-holder-confir...

Given that Google, Amazon, and Apple are all larger than Comcast in market-cap and most measures of market-share or customer count, will those three be broken up before Comcast, or after?

During.

They each have meaningful competition. I'm not sure what your definition of "monopoly" is if it includes companies like those.

Almost everywhere in the US, almost every ISP faces at least 4 (and often more) alternative ways to get on the internet.

Compared to Google or Apple, Comcast has a smaller market cap and smaller profit margins – and profit margins are a more reliable indicator of market power than eyeballing whether the competition looks "meaningful".

Almost everywhere in the US, almost every ISP faces at least 4 (and often more) alternative ways to get on the internet. How is that a "monopoly"?

>Almost everywhere in the US, almost every ISP faces at least 4 (and often more) alternative ways to get on the internet.

When you typed "ISP" is that supposed to mean "customer"? Citation?

Against whom is Comcast competing? I know very few people who can choose even between Comcast & AT&T. It's widely known that Comcast colludes with other cable companies (Time Warner) to avoid competition.

You're using a straw man argument. "Comcast is a monopoly." "Hey, look over there at something unrelated to your statement! Therefore, Comcast faces competition."

Citation?

I had 1 choice in Dallas (TimeWarner). In McKinney (Dallas exurb with a population of 400K) I only had UVerse as a choice.

The next best in those markets is ADSL. But that doesn't fit the bill if we're talking about broadband.

So right now, myself and everyone I'm familiar with, face monopolies.

And you're seriously trying to say Apple doesn't have competition? I have a hell of a lot more choice in what laptop I buy than what broadband provider I have for my home address (read: none).

I decided a couple weeks ago to switch toe DuckDuckGo for search. I opened my Safari Preferences. Made the change. Done.

This seems like an issue of basic reasoning skills.

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