US a county of free competition?

Not to the extent I had expected!

Comcast
Just getting something as basic as an internet/tv package turned out to be a frustrating endeavor when I moved to Seattle, WA, a couple of years ago. When I came here, my husband had already made a deal with Comcast which gave us fast and relatively stable internet, a possibility of getting an email account and a relatively big tv package where we can record tv programs - a great service, despite the high price.

I might never had noticed that my husband and I had locked ourselves into a monopoly if it wasn't because we kept on having problems with our tv, not being able to watch the channels we paid for. Three times we had a Comcast cable guy come buy to try to fix the cable problems, each time it ended in failure. So I looked into our options on Google.

At first I was filled with optimism seeing the many hits that came up when I searched for 'internet and tv providers'. But my smile quickly changed into a frown when I realized that the long hit list didn't do anything for me since all the providers in the US have neatly divided and conquered the nation between them so there remains only one (!) - 1 - cable provider in each urban area!! I though America was the country of free competition? And aren't cartels illegal in the US?

Being stubborn, I called the only 'alternatives' to cable we've got in Seattle, two dish networks providers - an anachronistic solution from the 1980's that no one in Denmark uses anymore - unless they are from another country and want to be able to watch all the channels from their home country. I swallowed my pride, deciding to go for the obsolete option in order to not allow myself to fall victim of a monopoly and made an appointment with Quest Dish Network to install a dish for us. When the guy came, he carried not just one, but two (!) dishes, one bigger than the other. Both were supposed to be installed on the railing on our balcony, facing south - thus keeping the sun away from our balcony. My husband and I couldn't stand that thought, so we apologized to the guy, helped him carry down his stuff and sent him home. Back to Comcast, head down.

After the 4th Comcast cable guy left our place being unable to help us, we decided to just scratch the up-to-date solution with the recording box and change to the minimum package of purportedly 26 tv stations (de facto about 10 that are in any way watch-able). If Comcast had competition I imagine we would have at least one other cable option, and maybe even a change to pick the tv stations we want - even if we only want 10 tv stations, say, CNN (Europe - which has much better world coverage than the US equivalent), MSNBC, KCTS9, TV5, C-SPAN, CBC, BBC World, HGTV, Comedy Central & SciFi. But somehow you're forced to pay for a load of @#$%^&* you don't want if you want to get most of these channels I just mentioned. And since we refused to pay a ton of money for a huge package of stuff we'd only use a tiny fraction of, we decided it's just not worth it. So we almost never watch tv anymore - which is probably for the better anyway. Instead we use podcasts, pbs.com, Netflix & Hulu (thank you PBS, Netflix & Hulu!), and I know an increasing amount of people are doing the same. You would think that that trend would at least make the cable monopolies CONSIDER upping their service a bit...

Ticketmaster
Same goes for buying concert tickets or other tickets. It seems that most concert places and theaters have made a deal with Ticketmaster that you can only get tickets via Ticketmaster's website - and pay the exorbitant fee to Ticketmaster for doing so. That, too, enraged me so much, that I have boycotted any event that require you buy your ticket via Ticketmaster. If I can in any way walk to the location and buy a ticket there, I do that. Fortunately I see one alternative to Ticketmaster ever more frequently, http://www.brownpapertickets.com/ So there's light at the end of the tunnel in the ticket purchasing market at least.

iPhone & AT&T
I know that AT&T is the old state monopoly, we have them too in Europe. But never have I seen such a clear case of monopoly for a phone company AFTER the official fall of the state owned phone companies as I have with AT&T and the iPhone! How can the American competition authorities possibly allow one company to sit on one specific phone brand - and that's one that happens to be the most popular and fastest growing?

Having consumer organization like Consumer Reports and Consumer Watchdog is a good thing, but it's not enough. The american citizens also need a strong federal or state authority that ensures that the citizens can act in a market with real options, free competition and absence of cartels.