Mjolner
join:2007-04-19
Flushing, NY
| reply to olegy
Re: better to survive
said by olegy  :I'd prefer them to survive - the only alternative to Road Runner - in the light of incoming TW download caps. I remember days several years ago, getting threats from RR about excessive downloads - like I'm alone pulling out 5% of all bandwidth in my node of 2000 users. Once switched to Earthlink all that harassment ended without any changes on my side. I'm on Earthlink Cable, which is piggy-backed on Time Warner's RR infrastructure. It's the best of both worlds, full cable speed (10Mbs down/ 512kbs up) and no download caps. The price is the same as I was paying for Earthlink DSL (1.5mbs/384kbs) and it is much more reliable than the Covad DSL over Verizon's lines.
Earthlink wants the dial-up business because dial-ups pay a relatively large amount for comparatively little service--providing the best mark-up of the user classes. These casual users will exist for a long time, so it's not a bad plan; but it's a life-preserver, not a plan for growth and success-- merely survival.
What will help all ISPs survive is a improvement in the broadband infrastructure nationally or continent-wide. A plan similar to the one North Carolina implemented a few years ago to increase its information infrastructure bandwidth by several hundred percent- to stay ahead of the curve.
Let's hope the new administration realizes that information technology is essential to a healthy economy, and it invests in the backbone. |
