T-Mobile, Wireless Carriers, and the Way to Fight Oligopolies : The New Yorker

A Tim Wu U.S. wireless service provider oligopoly profile

"If a monopolist did what the wireless carriers did as a group, neither the public nor government would stand for it. For our scrutiny and regulation of monopolists is well established—just ask Microsoft or the old AT&T. But when three or four firms pursue identical practices, we say that the market is “competitive” and everything is fine. To state the obvious, when companies act in parallel, the consumer is in the same position as if he were dealing with just one big firm. There is, in short, a major blind spot in our nation’s oversight of private power, one that affects both consumers and competition."

T-Mobile, Wireless Carriers, and the Way to Fight Oligopolies : The New Yorker