  funchords Hello Premium,MVM join:2001-03-11 Washington, DC
·Verizon Online DSL
·Skype
| reply to bicker Re: Free Press lives in some fantasy world
said by bicker : When people are consumers, they want socialism; when people are taxpayers, they want libertarianism; and when people are investors, they want profits. Awesome thought! |
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  funchords Hello Premium,MVM join:2001-03-11 Washington, DC | reply to openbox9 I see a lot of complaints coming from the eastern side of Florida (mostly speed and latency). |
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 bicker
join:2007-05-10 Burlington, MA
| reply to TKJunkMail Re: Free Press lives in some fantasy world
TK Junk Mail is absolutely correct. People aren't willing to pay enough to have the kind of ISP service many of them want, so no provider is going to be willing to offer such service. When people are consumers, they want socialism; when people are taxpayers, they want libertarianism; and when people are investors, they want profits. No two of these extremes can co-exist with either of the others. |
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 k1ll3rdr4g0n
join:2005-03-19 Homer Glen, IL
| reply to dvd536 said by dvd536 :I'd LOVE to see a "At least ####kbps and up to ####kbps" on ISPs and when they don't deliver, a days credit for every day the minimum isn't being delivered. after all when my bill comes, i don't get to pay "Up to $59.99/month" Actually according to that TOS you sign, they could pretty much throttle you to dial-up speeds and still be legally in the TOS; simply because the TOS is so wrapped in "legalese". I'm sure the lawyers that are playing poker in back will have a field day with it.
It will be interesting to see how all this evolves, I guarantee that in a couple of years once streaming media gets yet another explosion and people start getting $2,000 ISP bills...ISPs will quickly rethink the whole caps idea when people start saying "yeah I'm not going to put up with this crap" and either: drop internet altogether, goto the competition, or just buy a T1 (hey they have been coming down in price so it could be an affordable reality for the average consumer).
I personally find the "cap" issue funny in terms of legality. They don't have a physical meter like the electric company (water company is kinda the exception...because well I don't know exactly how you are charged for that) so there is no way they can "legally" prove that customers went over a cap. They can show server logs all day long, but a smart judge would just say "lets see a picture of a meter, don't have one? How do I know you didn't just make this data up?". |
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 jester121 Premium join:2003-08-09 Lake Zurich, IL
·surpasshosting
·ViaTalk
| reply to dvd536 You can have that now! It's called a T1 and they're about $400-500 per month depending on how far away from the CO you live. They come with a Service Level Agreement (SLA) which spells out precisely what ping times, throughput rates, and reliability you can expect, and how you will be compensated if the SLA is not met.
Oh wait -- you want a $40-50 service? Sorry, no SLA for you.
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  amigo_boy
join:2005-07-22 Tempe, AZ
·Cox HSI
·magicjack.com
| reply to dvd536 said by dvd536 :and when they don't deliver, a days credit for every day the minimum isn't being delivered. Sounds complicated to me. How will they verify that you're being honest that you didn't get what they promised as a minimum? Some people are interested in the maximum. How will that be verified? (I.e., the maximum is a useless number).
What you describe sounds like metered billing. It would be less nebulous about how to prove attainment. And, the provider would have an incentive to provide all you're willing to pay for.
Mark |
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  dvd536 as Mr. Pink as they come Premium join:2001-04-27 Phoenix, AZ
| reply to TKJunkMail I'd LOVE to see a "At least ####kbps and up to ####kbps" on ISPs and when they don't deliver, a days credit for every day the minimum isn't being delivered. after all when my bill comes, i don't get to pay "Up to $59.99/month" -- When I gez aju zavateh na nalechoo more new yonooz tonigh molinigh - Ken Lee |
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  espaeth Digital Plumber Premium,MVM join:2001-04-21 Minneapolis, MN
·voip.ms
·Vitelity VOIP
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1 edit | reply to major marco Re: Free Press lives in some fantasy world
said by major marco :A State like Floriduh has very little consumer protection laws. Ironic that would be your example, since it is action brought by the Florida Attorney General that got Comcast to disclose the 250GB caps.
»Comcast Pays Florida $150K For Misleading Consumers |
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 Skippy25
join:2000-09-13 Hazelwood, MO | reply to tubbynet Maybe I am crazy, I would have to look it up again, but didnt AT&T just do this very thing?
They provide speed ranges, which include a minimum and a maximum. Or did I misinterpret something? |
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  Combat Chuck Too Many Cannibals Premium join:2001-11-29 Erie, PA
| reply to Camelot One Trackers cannot force you to maintain a 1:1 ratio. They have no control over what your client actually does short of denying you new contacts. With newer clients all the tracker really does is get you up and running quickly.
For instance, using Azureus with Azureus distributed database /decentralized tracker, peer exchange, and the Mainline Distributed Hash Table plugin, all I need is a torrent file or magnet link and if the swarm is of any size at all, within an hour I'm up and running even if the tracker is completely dead. And you say set the private torrent bit? All that will do is bring forth a client that lies to the tracker and ignores the private bit.
Either way it is in the swarms best interest that it continue to upload to a peer that is uploading at a very slow rate than to totally cut off such an individual. -- The worlds elusive, remember where love's the leaf faith, the river what's born as flame dies in ember see for yourself! |
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 Sammer
join:2005-12-22 Canonsburg, PA
1 edit | reply to TKJunkMail said by TKJunkMail :Free Press: Free Press wants the FCC to require Internet service providers to publicly disclose the minimum broadband speed guaranteed -- not just the maximum potential speed offered. Transparency won't change the facts that NO ISP can guarantee a minimum speed at all locations all the time. And if an ISP actually did agree to establish a published and guaranteed minimum speed, we would end up with a bunch of vigilantes using some so-called public interest group supplied measurement tool to flood the network with traffic that would become a self-fulfilling prophecy. Well I tend to agree with you I think the minimums would be around 90 kbps. IOW broadband ISPs would only guarantee higher than dialup speeds and even that as you suggest would include legalese disclaimers. |
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 openbox9
join:2004-01-26 Alexandria, VA | reply to major marco You attempted to do so for two states. |
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  major marco Res Firma Mitescere Nescit Premium join:2003-02-13 Stepford, CA clubs:
| reply to openbox9 said by openbox9 :FWIW, I'm a happy Floridian consumer so Florida's consumer protection laws must not be too bad. Well gee, I wasn't aware that you spoke for the entire State. |
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 openbox9
join:2004-01-26 Alexandria, VA | reply to major marco FWIW, I'm a happy Floridian consumer so Florida's consumer protection laws must not be too bad. |
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  major marco Res Firma Mitescere Nescit Premium join:2003-02-13 Stepford, CA clubs:
1 edit | reply to openbox9 said by openbox9 : Regulations are already in place to prevent/correct false advertising and protect the consumer. Yes, some State laws of select States address fraud perpetrated upon consumers, however those laws are only as good as the AG who has the inclination to enforce them.
Case in point: California has both a vigilant AG, as well as a Dept of Consumer Affairs, to protect consumers from questionable business practices, but what about elsewhere. A State like Floriduh has very little consumer protection laws. In those cases, federal law kicks in where State law is silent, and, the federal arm responsible for enforcing that protection is the FTC which, in the past 8 yrs, has been about as useful as tits on a bull. -- The Toll
Tracking Lord Stanley
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  dadkins Can you do Blu? Premium,MVM join:2003-09-26 Hercules, CA
·Comcast
1 edit | reply to Camelot One People talk about this, but I haven't seen it in a while. Note my upload speed pictured on DUMeter, 430 - 490kbps. For that particular download, I'm doing ok.
A few days ago, for a different download on VUZE, my upload was 1.2mbps - for quite some time! Even after the download was finished.
As I said, *MY* connection seems to be doing ok. -- Think outside the Fox... Opera |
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 openbox9
join:2004-01-26 Alexandria, VA
·AT&T Southeast
| reply to tubbynet said by tubbynet :then the end user can't make the well informed decision that the free market economy hinges on. There's always the "try it risk free for 30 days and get your money back if you aren't satisfied" option. If ISPs are falsely advertising their services, then I agree with you that the free market economy can be twisted and the advertiser should be required to rectify the advertisement. Regulations are already in place to prevent/correct false advertising and protect the consumer. |
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