Try proving in court that they are doing it deliberately to destroy a
competitor. Where is the line between "get more customers" and "destroy
competitors".
Everyday I see retailers selling things at or below cost to them for a
limited time, to attract more customers.
Why can't MS give away MSIE in the hopes of getting more people on NT using
IIS? MS has *openly* stated that they are trying to steal NS's marketshare.
Note the government isn't pouncing - why? Because it is ok for MS to steal
NS's marketshare. That is competition.
There is already talk about long distance companies offering local service
free just to get you to use them for LD. And even talk about free standard
LD service to get you to use them for your voicemail, cellular, internet
access, etc, etc.
Giving away freebies or selling at insanely low prices to get customers
in the door is a time honored tradition. It would be a very hard fight in
court to prove it was deliberately to destroy competition.
Destroying competition may well be a byproduct. Retail chains die because
they can't win customers because competition is getting them all with sales,
incentives, etc. Why don't all of them sue their competition?
I can see the argument go like this:
Ind. ISP: The RBOC ISP is deliberately trying to destroy us?
RBOX ISP: We're just doing everythign we can to build our customer base. It
is normal to take a loss for a while until you build a revenue base. If we're
hurting the Ind. ISP, sorry, that's free market competition. They'll just
have to compete more aggressively.
Ind. ISP: we can't we don't have the backing you do.
RBOX ISP: Sorry, that's survivial of the fittest in the market. If you don't
have the reserves to make it through hard times, that isn't our fault.
Look at airlines - scores of small carriers, and even some of the best know
large carriers, died in the past few decades because other carriers undercut
them in price. The government let it happen, they didn't tell the other
carriers they had to raise their rates to help te failing carriers.
Why do ISPs thing the government is going to tell the RBOC ISPs and other
big players to play nice and not stomp the small guys to get market share?
I think relying on that would be insanely bad business planning.
Looking forward I think small ISPs are going to have to merge, or at least
form cooperative agreements, to handle the pressure.
It is already happening - small ISPs are being bought out by bigger ISPs,
or are merging to form a larger, more stable entity.
-MZ
-- Livingston Enterprises - Chair, Department of Interstitial Affairs Phone: 800-458-9966 510-426-0770 FAX: 510-426-8951 megazone@livingston.com For support requests: support@livingston.com <http://www.livingston.com/> Snail mail: 6920 Koll Center Parkway #220, Pleasanton, CA 94566