No it isn't fine - the fact that the monopoly is developed enough to suppress competition is already a bad thing - these guys need to be broken up hard.

When they additionally lobby to stop locals from fixing the problem - that's them rubbing salt in the wounds and I'm glad they're doing it, it's getting less technical folk to wake up to the BS.

I think I did a poor job communicating what I meant.

I agree with you, the current status quo is abhorrent.

Were there to be competition, some providers offering poor deals is fine. That isn't the case though. Thank you for articulating.

Do we know that they aren't lobbying? I'm not familiar with CenturyLink for Comcast absolutely is all over the US.