I’ve been situated in the same location now for some 7 years and have consistently tried to get service from Verizon for television and internet access, but to no avail.  Verizon is  simply not available anywhere in my area.  The service that is common in my area — you see their trucks everywhere — is Comcast.

Which makes me wonder how much indirect price fixing there is between Verizon and Comcast, not in terms of making their prices more or less equal but higher than would normally be the case — your garden variety price fixing — but in terms of a covert agreement between the two giant cable companies concerning which territories each will have absolute control over because the other agrees not to offer services in that area?  So now I’m paying Comcast more than twice the cost if those same services were supplied by Verizon.  Obvious price gouging.

And stepping back a bit for this issue of territoriality, there’s also the issue that these same cable companies offer their services, not based on a fixed price for everyone, but based on YOUR zip code.  Isn’t that also a form of price fixing?  The car companies do the same thing.  The price of a Toyota in Kalamazoo is different from the price in Boston, i.e., richer locations end up paying a premium.  More price fixing, in my opinion.

But where is the government to look into these abuses?  Nowhere to be found.

My Story