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Comment by megiddo | Hacker News Reader

Telecoms usually pay for their monopoly privileges.

This is just a shakedown.

The same way Microsoft was deemed a "monopoly" and what? Unbundled explorer? Is anyone seriously worried about their monopoly now? There's always a new kid on the block.

The DOJ is too slow to be effective at targeting tech monopolies. They should just quit before they look like a bunch of johnny-come-lately blowhards.

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Microsoft was specifically deemed a monopoly in desktop operating systems. That was OK. The problem was that they were trying to use that to "leverage" their way into dominance on the internet, by pushing (really quite aggressively) users to use Internet Explorer, and by pushing (even bribing) websites to include "IE-only" elements. "Try to make using Netscape a jarring experience" was the way they put it.

It's that "leveraging" bit that was the problem - trying to use a monopoly in one area to destroy competition in another area.

> The problem was that they were trying to use that to "leverage" their way into dominance on the internet, by pushing (really quite aggressively) users to use Internet Explorer

Absolutely correct. By the way, have you visited Google with a non-Chrome browser? They’ll encourage you to use Chrome for “the best experience.” Seems very much like leveraging, never understood why people don’t make a bigger deal about this.

Most people use Chrome already so they don't see how aggressive Google popup spams anyone not using it. Meanwhile, Microsoft tries a subtle reminder about Edge, and there's a media ruckus about it for days.

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