LogFAQs > #980184129

Deegs posted...

I don't think you have this quite correct. Municipalities definitely have entered into exclusivity deals with ISP that much is true but price fixing is an illegal practice. If multiple ISPs in a region conspire to fix prices this would result in a lawsuit. Open to reading more on this but there has no such price fixing scheme brought to light legally speaking that I'm aware of.

It wouldnt necessarily result in a lawsuit. Weve seen in this play out in real life already. Neither Spectrum or AT&T wanted to offer gigabit internet service to residential users and coordinated with each other in this effort. At my moms house in Austin, TX, those were the only two options.

2013: https://www.wired.com/2013/02/time-warner-cable-2/

On Wednesday, at a conference in San Francisco, Esteves downplayed the importance of offering a service to compete with Google, as reported by The Verge. "We're in the business of delivering what consumers want, and to stay a little ahead of what we think they will want.... We just don't see the need of delivering that to consumers," she said, referring to gigabit-speed internet connections.

April 9, 2013: Google Fiber announced that they were going to deliver gigabit internet service in Austin, TX
https://money.cnn.com/2013/04/09/technology/innovation/google-fiber-austin/

October 1, 2013: AT&T unveils plan for service to compete with Google Fiber
https://www.wired.com/2013/10/fiber-austin/

April 21, 2014: AT&T said they were going to beat Google to the punch
https://venturebeat.com/business/att-wants-to-beat-google-fiber-to-the-punch-in-21-new-cities/

As a result, Austin, TX went from largely either being able to choose from having a 50 Mbps max download speed from either AT&T or Spectrum to having Google Fiber offer 1 Gbps, AT&T offer 1 Gbps, and Spectrum offering either 1 Gbps through fiber or 930 Mbps down and 35 Mbps up through coax. For around the $70 price point that Google was offering.A smaller ISP in the area named Grande also started offering gigabit internet after Google Fibers announcement.

As far as I know, no one sued Spectrum or AT&T for keeping speeds low at a price they could have offered gigabit service until Google Fiber made their announcement and started delivering service.