I think we're still (politically) in the phase of convincing people that cable companies are both a monopoly, and an abusive one.
E.g., here in the Bay Area, I have a choice in my area to go with AT&T[1] for Internet connectivity, but IIRC, they don't meet the FCC's definition of "broadband", so really, for broadband Internet access, my only choice is Comcast. (Now, the FCC was recently trying to re-write the definition of broadband s.t. mobile connectivity could count, but that's such an absurd stretch of the imagination when discussing the market of high-speed Internet access.)
While there is also TWC, I've found that where TWC exists, typically they also enjoy a similar status.
Chattanooga, TN, interestingly, offers ~50x the speed for the same price as Comcast here.
E.g., here in the Bay Area, I have a choice in my area to go with AT&T[1] for Internet connectivity, but IIRC, they don't meet the FCC's definition of "broadband", so really, for broadband Internet access, my only choice is Comcast. (Now, the FCC was recently trying to re-write the definition of broadband s.t. mobile connectivity could count, but that's such an absurd stretch of the imagination when discussing the market of high-speed Internet access.)
While there is also TWC, I've found that where TWC exists, typically they also enjoy a similar status.
Chattanooga, TN, interestingly, offers ~50x the speed for the same price as Comcast here.
As for having abused their status,
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/2016/10/25/comcas...
https://www.theverge.com/2015/5/1/8530403/chattanooga-comcas...
[1]: AT&T also has a history of disregarding consumer privacy (e.g., https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/08/att-selling-data_n...), so I avoid them for that, too.