phazah
join:2004-05-02
Findlay, OH | price increases... My basic dsl is going up by $3..
same crappy 2.5mbps....
time to look at time warner... grrr... |
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 skeechanAi OtsukaholicPremium
join:2012-01-26
AA169|170
kudos:2
 ·Cox HSI
 ·Clear Wireless
| Hypocrite Too bad the Senator isn't so concerned with soaring taxes, food and energy costs...the real cost drivers for families. Nope; keep diverting 1/2 the corn crop to ethanol while flooding them with subsidies, keep restricting new energy exploration so we have summer like gas prices in Winter and keep raising taxes...but get us back that $5 that DSL went up.
It is no wonder that Congress is so universally hated, there is no bigger enemy of the people. |
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 BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | How do you create more competition? Seriously everyone says "more competition" no one explains what that even means. You're not getting another cable company to more into your town. You're not getting another telco moving into town. So seriously where is this "competition" coming from? |
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| Internet prices.... My internet costs me as much monthly as filling up my tank weekly with gas. Sure, it might me more expensive than heavily subsidized internet in other countries, but internet is one of my cheapest expenses every month and unless you subscribe to insanely high priced packages, it probably is the same for most people. I see internet as one of the best valued services I pay for on a monthly basis. Senators have more important things to be worrying about. |
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| Though Genachowski is Almost Out the Door... "Genachowski's almost out the door, and the top candidate to replace him at the moment was a former lobbyist for both the cable and wireless industries." Meet the new boss... |
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axus
join:2001-06-18
Washington, DC | reply to BF69
Re: How do you create more competition? Municipal funded broadband and co-ops are a start.
Blocking mergers on anti-trust grounds would have helped, but it's too late for that now.
Overturning Powell's corrupt decision that IP services are not communication services can only help.
Government shouldn't be setting prices, but I think they could stop giving USF funds to AT&T + Verizon, and give it to WISPs and other very small players. |
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 LinklistPremium
join:2002-03-03
Longport, NJ
kudos:5 | reply to skeechan
Re: Hypocrite said by skeechan:Too bad the Senator isn't so concerned with soaring taxes, food and energy costs...the real cost drivers for families. Nope; keep diverting 1/2 the corn crop to ethanol while flooding them with subsidies, keep restricting new energy exploration so we have summer like gas prices in Winter and keep raising taxes...but get us back that $5 that DSL went up.
It is no wonder that Congress is so universally hated, there is no bigger enemy of the people.
Yes. And regulatory price fixing has proven to fail over and over again.
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Senate - get off your butts and actually create a budget that has spending cuts 3x the amount of tax increases like you promised.
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BF69Premium
join:2004-07-28
Camden, TN | reply to axus
Re: How do you create more competition? How would blocking mergers do anything?
Not every community would invest in municipal broadband. Heck our library almost closed down because the county refused to fund it. Bigger cities sure. The rural areas where broadband is hard to come by and thus more expensive, nope.
How does ruling that IP services are communication services help? |
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| lol like the the FCC will do anything its like the do nothing congress |
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| No Regulations and Price Creep Our various levels of government seem to be abandoning basic services like dsl, or its low speed (1-3 Mbps) cable modem equivalent, through lack of regulation and allowed price creep. Dsl is now being priced just like our local stand alone basic internet (2 Mbps) at $40/month advertised price. Surely everyone can afford a Cadillac? WRONG!
A basic level of service should cost no more than $15/month for standalone phone (with mandated QOS) and maybe $25-$30/month total cost if you include 1-2 Mbps internet with the phone service.
Internet service should also be considered a telecommunications service and regulated as such. Why you say? Well grandma just had her phone service switched to VOIP by her cable provider during an "improvement" service call. They didn't explain the change to her (still using same phones on jacks) and little did she know that no backup battery was provided. Sure enough, a few days later our unreliable, poorly regulated, monopoly, publically traded electric company had an outage for several hours and her phone went dead. Unacceptable!
Price creep is similar to wireless phone services. Unlimited calls and texts for everyone, but at a higher base rate. At least with wireless you can switch to pre-paid, MVNOs, etc.
Price setting (at affordable rates) with public utilities is very common with water, sewer, and electric. There is no good reason this can't be extended to basic "landline" phone and internet access as a foundation for connected citizens. Monopolies require strong oversight! |
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| Congress Critters This is the way Congress works. When a senator needs some campaign donation grease, he calls out the company in question for a public tongue lashing. Then the AT&T lobbyists call him back in private. |
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 morboComplete Your Transaction
join:2002-01-22
00000 | Broadband competition is a thing of the past It's nice to see that broadband competition is of some interest to at least this one Senator. Competition is a good thing, yet here the U.S. is with some of the slowest and most overpriced internet service in the world.
The latest strategy of telco (AT&T & Verizon) to rid themselves of DSL customers by raising prices and not upgrading speeds is working. The customers are going to cable internet; however, the price to consumers isn't cheap.
The reality is that there is no broadband competition anymore. Because of this, prices will continue to skyrocket and service will suffer. This is great for the duopolies providing service, but it comes at a steep cost to consumers. |
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ke4pymPremium
join:2004-07-24
Charlotte, NC Reviews:
 ·VOIPo
·Verizon Broadban..
·RoadRunner Cable
·Northland Cable ..
| reply to skeechan
Re: Hypocrite said by skeechan:Too bad the Senator isn't so concerned with soaring taxes, food and energy costs...the real cost drivers for families. Nope; keep diverting 1/2 the corn crop to ethanol while flooding them with subsidies, keep restricting new energy exploration so we have summer like gas prices in Winter and keep raising taxes...but get us back that $5 that DSL went up.
It is no wonder that Congress is so universally hated, there is no bigger enemy of the people.
I was gonna say that they ended the subsidies. But, apparently, they just hid them better:
»www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2···e-better |
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Reviews:
·Google Voice
·Junction Networks
·Callcentric
·T-Mobile US
 ·AT&T U-Verse
| data on price Yeap, not only does FCC not collect data on price, but they also seem to completely omit ISPs like Paxio.net, which now offers Gigabit service at only $138.50/month. And Paxio recently had some extra progress on their Emeryville project, »EmeryConnect.com/, which aims to cover the whole city, in cooperation with EPOA: »www.epoa.us/tag/paxio/, and, supposedly, even offer free WiFi across the city, »evilleeye.com/in-the-neighborhoo···-eville/ .
I'm collecting data on some competitive offerings of true broadband (symmetrical 100Mbps, or, at least, above symmetrical 20Mbps), including the prices, at »bmap.su/. The site is raw, and it's just a no-thrills list for now, because, unfortunately, there are still too few 100Mbps/100Mbps offerings across the nation to make it worthwhile to make the site interactive yet.
However, we already have several commercial providers that offer not just 100/100 at under $100/month, but even 1000/1000 for under $150/mo! Which, I think, is just awesome! »fiber.usinternet.com/ lists 1000/1000 for $100/month, in Minneapolis, MN.
And, the funny thing is, in-the-middle of nowhere places actually have much better broadband offerings than some major metro areas like San Jose, CA. Take a look at Cedar Falls, IA, »cfu.net/. A tiny rural town with a population of 39k in the middle of nowhere, but has 16/8 @ $44/mo, and 120/60 @ $138/mo, with many tiers in between.
And all these offerings are a living proof that 100/100 under $100/mo is possible pretty much regardless of how small the town is, and telecoms like AT&T simply don't do their job right if they still offer service based on kbps, when others already offer not just Mbps, but even Gbps. |
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 tschmidtPremium,MVM
join:2000-11-12
Milford, NH
kudos:8
 ·G4 Communications
·Fairpoint Commun..
 ·Hollis Hosting
| CLECs may be an option in some locations I recently switched our wireline phone and ADSL service from the ILEC FairPoint to a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) G4 Communications. Double the speed, more phone features and at a substantial savings to boot. We now have 6Mbps ADSL, a nice improvement but it cannot compete with Cable.
The long term downside to CLEC's business model is the availability of copper customer loops. CLECs take advantage of FCC unbundled network elements (UNE) regulation to rent customer copper loop and locate their gear at the central office. As ILECs walk away from copper this business model is called into question. The other downside is due to the fact DSL is distant limited, so locating the DSLAM at the Central Office means they are at a speed disadvantage compared to Cable and LTE.
Unless there is regulatory change in a few years most of us will have to choose between: Wired - from the local Cable franchise or LTE from one of the wireless providers. Verizon is already promoting LTE here in New Hampshire as an alternative to DSL.
It would be nice if broadband access was handled the same way as electrification and telephone service in years past to provide universal access. But in the current regulatory climate that is unlikely to happen.
As broadband access becomes more and more entwined with everyday life the keepers of the Internet on-ramp become ever more powerful to call the shots.
/tom |
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fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | reply to silbaco
Re: Internet prices.... said by silbaco:My internet costs me as much monthly as filling up my tank weekly with gas. Sure, it might me more expensive than heavily subsidized internet in other countries, but internet is one of my cheapest expenses every month and unless you subscribe to insanely high priced packages, it probably is the same for most people. I see internet as one of the best valued services I pay for on a monthly basis. Senators have more important things to be worrying about.
You don't have a mobile phone with data plan? ... how about multiple phones in your household?
"Internet data" IS in fact getting way out of hand.
What really gets me is the ignorance of all the arm-chair quarterbacks in this tread and this forum in general. As much as I loath the federal government, and most government today in general, the fact is that you guys see things through tunnel vision. You can't see beyond your own narrow focus. The government and congress DOES do more than one single thing at a time.. in fact they're rather efficient at screwing up MULTIPLE things at one time.
Many of you act like the government is here JUST to lower your broadband prices.. I swear.
But as to your comparison of a tank of gas.. horrible. Like I've said for years, stick with facts at hand and not compare apples to oranges. Points can be made with out comparing your internet cost to a fill up in your car.. I just turned in a 2013 Ford Fusion Hybrid that cost me $30 to fill up and got me near 600 miles to the tank. If I do the math, my internet cost me more per month than it does to run the car.
But, my internet costs me $120 a month for my mobile plan and $59 a month for home service and that doesn't include the forced modem rental that I can't buy on my own. I certainly don't think that $179 a month is "reasonable" for the internet. It's a controlled, monopolized cash grab by an industry that is taking advantage of the people all while controlling the very government that should be controlling it.
Wake up. |
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fiberguyMy views are my own.Premium
join:2005-05-20
kudos:3 | reply to posthaste
Re: Congress Critters said by posthaste:This is the way Congress works. When a senator needs some campaign donation grease, he calls out the company in question for a public tongue lashing. Then the AT&T lobbyists call him back in private.
WELL SAID! |
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| reply to posthaste
Exactly!
The corruption in our government is rampant and out of control now.
I wouldn't be one bit surprised if bribery isn't occurring in situations like this right now. |
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Reviews:
 ·DIRECTV
1 edit | reply to tschmidt
Re: CLECs may be an option in some locations The way the companies that control the broadband industry are behaving, clearly calls for it being categorized as a heavily regulated utility.
Prices for even the most basic services are spiraling out of control (if you can even get basic service at all) and it is true that today broadband service is essential for everyday life activities, which wasn't the case even a decade ago.
There is NO reason why basic 1-2mb service should be higher than $20/mo in price and these companies should be FORCED to offer a basic plan that is affordable to most people. For that 20 it isn't like the customer is getting something for nothing either, just a manageable cost for those on a limited budget. |
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CXM_SplicerLooking at the bigger picturePremium
join:2011-08-11
NYC
kudos:1 Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
| reply to BF69
Re: How do you create more competition? I agree that blocking a merger does nothing when the companies work together anyway but ruling Internet connectivity a necessary communications service and regulating certain standards would be beneficial to the consumers. For one, I think enough conflict of interest has been demonstrated between the businesses of last mile connectivity and content provider that the two should be separated. |
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