Telecommunications Industry Mergers, The Sky is not Falling!
“Histrionic warnings of a cable monopoly have all the credibility of Chicken Little,” comments Grover Norquist president of Americans for Tax Reform and Katie Mcauliffe Executive director of Digital Liberty.
The proposed merger of Comcast and Time Warner Cable has met resistance from special interest groups and even the New York Times claiming that the merger would create an unfair market and establish a possible monopoly. Norquist and Mcauliffe call this laughable, citing that after the proposed merger Comcast would still only have access to twenty percent of the national market; opponents also fail to mention that twenty percent of consumers still have a choice on whether to use Comcast or other competitive services.
“With the market in constant fluctuation, there is no threat of broadband or video markets being dominated by Comcast. America is one of only two nations with three fully deployed broadband technologies competing for customers nationwide — cable, telephone and wireless 4G LTE. Considering these competitive technologies, Comcast/TWC will have, post-transaction, just a 20 percent market share.”
Norquist and Mcauliffe stress the fact that the Internet Service Provider market is well populated with competition including different Hardline, Phone, and wireless providers. Additionally they argue that the age of mid twentieth century communications monopolies are inherently “things of the past” with technology making Internet, TV, and communications services widely available. Both continue to staunchly uphold free market thinking in the Comcast Time Warner merger, and reject government over reach.
You can view Norquist’s and Mcauliffe’s OPED here.