[IP] more on Locked In a Cell: How Cell Phone Early Terminati on Fees Hurt Consumers
Begin forwarded message:
From: Chris Beck <cbeck@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: October 16, 2005 2:44:15 PM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] more on Locked In a Cell: How Cell Phone Early
Terminati on Fees Hurt Consumers
Rumour has it David Farber, on or about 16.Oct.2005 14:22, whispered:
*What?* Are you seriously arguing that the carriers should be
_required_
to give you service even if they fear they're going to lose money by
serving you? Are you insane?
No. What he is saying, even though he doesn't realise it, is that
free-market
economics do not apply when
a) the cost of entry is billions of dollars and
b) the number of competitors is less than x (where x is a number
between 5 and
30 and a Nobel Prize in economics will be awarded to the person/
people who
develop the formula to calculate it)
There does not appear to be any real competition between cell phone
providers
and without competition there is no need to worry about customer
satisfaction.
Certainly they hate each other and desperately want each other's
customers but
there does not seem to be any creativity or variation in providing
the service -
and that, to me, is the key indicator of competition.
I leave the solution as an exercise for the reader.
--
Chris Beck - http://pacanukeha.blogspot.com
Antiquis temporibus, nati tibi similes in rupibus ventosissimis
exponebantur ad necem.
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