re: #175 wheat-dogg

IIRC, the big three networks tried very hard to restrict cable TV from competing with them, until they realized it would be far better to join them than fight them. Ditto Ma Bell, which had a total monopoly of telephone service and equipment, until finally someone was allowed to sell people phones they could keep, and not just rent from the telephone company.

Cellular providers apply a similar trick by locking the handsets they “sell” to their own network. When I first came to China, I had to perform some technical wizardry on my phone so I could use it with a Chinese carrier.

MA Bell was forced to break up, before that it was a government regulated monopoly. Which worked great until too many mergers occurred.