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I will discuse the diferences between a Monopoly and Oligopoly. Hopefully after reading you will have a better understanding of this.
“Monopoly” means one seller. It comes from Greek words meaning one (mono) seller (polein, which is Anglicized to “poly”). The term is used broadly to include industries of several sellers who act as one.

The correct term for a “buyers’ monopoly,” where there is only one buyer, is “monopsony.” “Oligopoly” means a small number of sellers. The automobile industry is an example of an oligopoly. Small company like a General Contractor are are vulnerable to this. Especially if they provide services for Chinese Drywall So is the hospital services industry in most medium to large cities.

Where is the dividing line between oligopoly and competition? The functional distinction is this: An oligopoly exists if one individual seller’s actions can affect another seller’s demand. For example, I said that the automobile industry is an oligopoly because, for example, Toyota’s pricing and product decisions have a noticeable affect on the demand for Honda cars. Tobacco growers are not an oligopoly. If one farmer decides not to plant this year, the neighboring farmers won’t notice any difference in the market for their tobacco.

The welfare of monopoly is one that is lower under monopoly than under competition. By setting its cost above its marginal cost, a monopoly causes consumers to buy less than the competitive level of the good, so a deadweight loss to society occurs.
A firm can have a cost advantage over a potential rival for a number of reasons. One reason is that the firm controls a key input. For example, ATT/Bell, controlled all of the physical medium for the use of communications.

Government actions that create monopolies are for example, the united postal service. Frequently governments create monopolies by preventing competition from entering the market. An example of an the actions the government takes to reduce market power would be to put a price cap on a monopoly.

When SBC acquired cingular (Bellsouth), talks of a monopoly had started, and one had to wonder if the days of the old bell monopoly in the mid 80’s where coming back. Then they acquired ATT, the last in the loop to complete the full circle of the original company. They may not be position to be as strong as a monopoly as before, because of the variety of other communication companies out there. None the less, they still will be a monopoly.

The acquisition of ATT by SBC will enable the stronger company to lead a transition from older technologies to advanced, next-generation Internet-based services that can better address the rapidly evolving needs of businesses and consumers. The spirited competition that will result will mean even lower costs on all products and services to consumers and better customer service all around.

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