You can cancel your service, sure. But if you need a landline, then you're forced to go to another provider who does the same exact pricing trick. So there really is no choice at all.
For a local land line, "another provider" might not exist. In many cases, T has a monopoly on the last mile. This is why local phone service has historically been so strictly regulated. I'm surprised this is at all legal, given that history...but I suppose rules change, and T has a lot of politicians in their pocket.
The good news is that it will probably hurt T more than help in the long run. A lot of people who have held on to land lines may begin to think about whether the cost is worth it when the price goes up by 10%, or so. There are an awful lot of superior alternatives to land lines these days, except in the most rural of areas. Even my parents now use their cell phones more than their land line...they might even turn off the land line with this change, since they use their cell phones for long distance calls.
If "another provider" is not marginally more beneficial, why would you switch? Or put another way, how would "another provider" compete for market share if it is not marginally more beneficial? Granted, the competitive process is, sadly, subject to all manner of governmental interference.
I mention this for a reason. Thoreau said, "There are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to one who is striking at the root." Before we start hacking, we need to be clear on which are the branches and which are the roots.
The corporations are the roots, and the govt represents the branches. Seeing it the other way around is delusional.
If "another provider" is not marginally more beneficial, why would you switch? Or put another way, how would "another provider" compete for market share if it is not marginally more beneficial? Granted, the competitive process is, sadly, subject to all manner of governmental interference.
Because you get tempted by alluring advertising, or by false promises. Ultimately there is no good reason to switch if they're all the same -- but that's the way quasi-monopolies like it. They aren't interested in competition. They're interested in sucking more money out of their existing customers -- much easier!
Don't mistake Adam Smith's concept of hundreds of competitive small businesses with two or three corporations dominating an entire industry. The rules of capitalism -- real capitalism -- no longer apply. It's corporatism. Their way or the highway.
