This morning I saw that TechDirt is reporting that “Verizon Fined For Pretending That Limited Service Was Unlimited”. In that article Mike makes the statement that “Comcast was famous for many, many years for being one of the biggest ISPs to lie about offering unlimited service. It’s a story that comes up in the press every year or so, and every year Comcast gives its own doublespeak about how it only cuts off the worst “abusers.”".

If companies purposely abuse customers on a regular and consistent basis, regulation will follow. The fact that New York is investigating Verizon is a precursor to the implementation of future regulation. Net Neutrality regulation comes to mind. So if the posters on TLF want a free market, without regulation, they must demand that corporations act ethically.

“regulate the hell out of them” – as if it’s a punishment.

I assumed when I got to Washington, D.C. that companies didn’t like regulation. It turns out that they only dislike regulation that puts them at a competitive disadvantage. They like regulation (and taxation) that gives them advantage, and they’ll work to make it so even if it doesn’t at first.

Your two comments are so interesting in how they treat regulation. ScruffyDan, I agree that regulation should work to foster a more competitive market. But it doesn’t. What regulation does is stultify markets so that “compliance” is a dimension of goods or services as important as giving consumers what they want. And the terms of “compliance” are dictated (more and more with the passage of time) by the regulated parties themselves, as their lobbyists seek protection for their business models against new competition. These are things regulation ideally shouldn’t do, but it’s what regulation does.

Thus, Steve R., regulation is not really a punishment for businesses. It ends up punishing consumers because companies are less responsive to us, less threatened by competition, and more responsive to regulatory agencies. They use regulation to suppress competiton and keep the marketplace in which they work under control.

Thanks, both of you, for your fair comments.

I too, eagerly anticipate the day I can get Fios so I can drop them like a rock, but in the meantime they have an effective monopoly on broadband in a great many areas.

Either regulate the hell out of them until they’re delivering the most open, best possible service to their customers at the cheapest possible price, or do something to promote actual competition and consumer choice. Because lacking either, we’re at Comcast’s mercy – and the lesson from this is that they’re not above abusing that.

….

It looks like Comcast is paying the price for trying to outsmart their customers.”

Since there are no posts suggesting that these companies act ethically, the implicit assumption is that it is OK for companies to “steal” from customers until caught. Once caught, to quickly apologize (as a demonstration of how the free market works to regulate itself) and to then initiate a new hidden scheme to defraud the consumer until caught again, and again, and again, and again.

Consumer vigilance it a vital ingredient to a free market, but so is ethical and open corporate behavior. If you don’t want regulation, behave responsibly.

Broadband regulation should work to foster a more competitive market, which in turn should make most of these types of problems disappear.