BeanX wrote:
* Speaking of which and not to derail but I think it's high time congress relooks at internets classification and classify it as a utility and not as a luxury. When I worked at Charter Cable I found out why they are allowed to have a "monopoly" where phone companies aren't. In the past Bell(AT&T) owned most of the phone lines which they refused to let other companies use, and congress had to step in and pretty much stop that. The way it works now if companies can pay a fee to At&T use "bandwidth" in those lines then offer it to their consumers for a cheaper price if they wish. Cable companies on the otherhand weren't part of this as cable at the time was still rather new and considered a luxury(and still is), but they arent forced to share their lines with other companies. So a competitor would have to put in full new lines which because of a company already having a stable base would be almost futile to try getting a base. This is why most areas (Mega cities not included) have limited options for cable (and since the best internet is usually cable, internet) provider, and it seems to be a monopoly.
Congress should step in and make basic internet (even 256kb of 512kb) classified as utility and allow smaller companies to lease bandwidth. This would help net infrastructure in the US a lot. High speed DSL (consumer) caps a lot lower and usually more expensive for slower speeds. Uverse has a max atm Speed of 30Mbs(?), Charter here offers(well used to, now its a 2 tier system) 10,15,25,50,100Mbs packages, now they offer 30mbs or 100Mbs(I have the latter since it cost me a whole 5 dollars a month since the wife works at Charter still my job got downsized during the big recession start 2 years ago.) I'm really looking forward to Google and their net since it looks like great speeds and affordable prices (first day people in the test area were getting 700Mbs download and Upload on home connections and that was only 80 bucks a month I think) but they offered great plans and even a permanent* plan that was something like "pay for us to install the lines to your house and you would always get like a 5mb internet connection, or could pay per month for a higher speed" Least it was one package they were looking at.
Congress should step in and make basic internet (even 256kb of 512kb) classified as utility and allow smaller companies to lease bandwidth. This would help net infrastructure in the US a lot. High speed DSL (consumer) caps a lot lower and usually more expensive for slower speeds. Uverse has a max atm Speed of 30Mbs(?), Charter here offers(well used to, now its a 2 tier system) 10,15,25,50,100Mbs packages, now they offer 30mbs or 100Mbs(I have the latter since it cost me a whole 5 dollars a month since the wife works at Charter still my job got downsized during the big recession start 2 years ago.) I'm really looking forward to Google and their net since it looks like great speeds and affordable prices (first day people in the test area were getting 700Mbs download and Upload on home connections and that was only 80 bucks a month I think) but they offered great plans and even a permanent* plan that was something like "pay for us to install the lines to your house and you would always get like a 5mb internet connection, or could pay per month for a higher speed" Least it was one package they were looking at.
https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/
I would sign it.
Edited, Jan 22nd 2013 3:18pm by Shaowstrike