Reply #10: The Consumers and Net Users [View All]

[Dogmudgeon]

I personally don't care whether the companies feel put-upon by Big Gummint. Let them gripe all they want -- just like the long-suffering consumers. Verizon only ceded the point because they knew they would lose thier case higher up in the legal food chain.

I thought that the mantra was that Private Enterprise could always do things better than Big Gummint. In the case of public utilities, it looks like that wasn't quite true. Verizon can't even get DSL service to my house, but they want to make sure that nobody else can, either (excepting only pricey Comcast, who would pound them into dust if they tried).

Verizon had a special law passed that allowed them to monopolize a public utility and, in a sense, print money with the blessing of the local government. They have no right to complain when that same government provides a service that they can't, or won't.

--p!