qworster
join:2001-11-25
Los Angeles, CA
 ·DSL EXTREME
·Brand X Internet
 ·RoadRunner Cable
 ·Vonage
4 edits | The FCC is the REASON WHY there is no competition!!
The FCC (under Powell) virtually ELIMINATED INTERNET COMPETITION!
They did so by GUTTING the Communications Act of 1996-but not until AFTER making sure that the "big boys" got to glutton themselves at the trough! THEN when it came time for the little guys to have their meal, the FCC snatched the Act away from them!
I don't know about you, but here where I live-in the center of Hollywood, we have basically TWO choices for Internet-Time Warner Cable or AT&T DSL. Yes, I have an independent retailer for my DSL, but when it comes to their speeds, wire repair, etc., they are held hostage by AT&T. In fact, I have to have AT&T phone service to even GET Internet service from anyone else but AT&T! This means that AT&T has their finger in the pie in every case! Indeed, even though I live exactly one street mile from the Gower Street phone office, my AT&T phone line is in such disrepair that I only qualify for the (slower) 3 mbit service-instead of the 6 mbit I should qualify for at this distance! Why? Because AT&T is stockpiling all the GOOD lines for when their U-Verse service comes here!
The bottom line is this-the FCC has so limited Internet competition that in the Country's second largest city we have only TWO choices-cable or telco. NOW they want to insure that the TWO providers can treat their customers any way they want and the customer has no recourse! If they feel like it, they can throttle my service to pre-dialup speeds. If they want they can make certain sites unavailable to me. They can degrade my Vonage traffic. They can make p2p usage impossible. AND they can do all this with the full blessing of the FCC!
This FCC has to be the most anti consumer govt. agency out there! All they want to do is insure that THEY have big fat jobs waiting when their terms are over! Don't believe me? Look where Powell wound up! |
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KrK
Heavy Artillery For The Little Guy
Premium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | I'd add something, but that sums it up pretty darn well.... |
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nasadude
join:2001-10-05
Rockville, MD | reply to qworster
I watched the hearing and Larry Lessig said that in the not so small city where he lives, San Francisco, he has one choice of broadband provider - comcast.
Just like me in the Maryland suburbs of Washington DC, the nation's capitol. |
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