Destined To Fail
Of all the government created monopolies, the cable monopolies are some of the worst.<p>If cable companies had to compete to keep business, they'd offer better service and treat their employees better. Southwest airlines is a good example of a company that has to keep costs low, but does this in part by treating their employees very well.<p>Notice that they charge ever higher and higher fees, in part because the municipalities are on the take here and get a cut of the fees, but also because the demand is inelastic.  If you live in Austin and you want cable, they have your business.<p>So, there's no reason to spend the money to have enough technicians to ensure they are able to do a good job and a timely one.<p>A big part of the reason this never improves is that everyone blames Time Warner.  TWC is just maximally allocating resources, which is what they should do. Namely, out of areas where they have a monopoly protected by the violence the city of austin will do to any other cable company that tries to compete.... and into areas where they have to compete for customers.<p>But you don't hear this issue at election time.  Why do people not hold their city council peeps accountable for imposing this overpriced monopoly on them?<p>My guess is that most don't realize it is a government created monopoly, and the ones who do, many think that there would be no cable if the city hadn't given those rights away as an incentive to install all the cable. (not the case... places where this doesn't happen, still get cable because it isn't that expensive to put in the cable.)