Comment by ajkjk
14 days ago
that's one way of doing the calculation, which I do not subscribe to. The economic theory that markets develop according to the aggregate effects of rational actors does not invert into a moral imperative to you should do what money tells you. In fact it has no bearing on what one "should" do whatsoever.
As it happens they are competing on service quality and goodwill more than price (all will drop the price quite a bit if you ask because it's well over their costs and, bless, they are actually competing on price for once). I know that fiber's service is technically good but I resent Google enough that I will not give them money, all else being equal. Of course if I end up resenting the other providers more, maybe I would.
Verizon will only lower prices if it's losing customers to Google Fiber. Otherwise it won't.
There are 4-5 competing ISPs in my area.
And no, they'll lower prices to prevent losing customers preemptively as well. But only if you ask them to