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to maartena
Re: I talked to AT&T corporate about the caps.said by maartena:Answer: AT&T does not have a plan currently to have the metering system tested by anyone else, but if there is any problems or inconsistencies that AT&T doesn't resolve to my satisfaction, please don't hesitate to call the corporate office.
(Bottom line: You'll have to fight their support desk first). This bugs me... a lot... |
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 maartenaElmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA |
maartena
Premium Member
2011-Jul-6 11:56 am
Yeah.... there is just NO legislation in place for these things. Nor is there in Canada, or Europe for that matter. There were providers charge by the byte, no one but them can claim accuracy on the meters. Since the usually VERY regulatory EU, and much more regulatory Canadians haven't done anything about it, you can pretty much bet on this NEVER EVER happening in the U.S. We, after all, hate government regulation of ANY kind. |
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said by maartena:We, after all, hate government regulation of ANY kind.
There are times when regulation is good, and I think this is one of them. It's good for the consumer, bad for the big businesses which means that, even if legislation started, it probably wouldn't get past the republicans :P |
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maartenaElmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA |
maartena
Premium Member
2011-Jul-6 1:27 pm
What they really need to do is allow competition. Verizon actually did it for a while, reselling FIOS via DSL Extreme, but then cancelled the contract between them, and converted all the FIOS customers back.
One way of doing it, is to allow 1 entity to own the infrastructure, which could either be a government company or a private company that is not allowed to go in the ISP business, and allow every other telecommunication company that wants to start an ISP to use these cables, at a price. That price should cover maintenance, expansion, etc, for all infrastructure, operational expenses, and some profit. ISP's can then pad that amount a little bit more with their own services, such as email, usenet, webhosting, routing to their backbone and the actual customer service front, plus of course.... profit!
In essence, you would SPLIT the business of managing/operating infrastructure, from the ISP's that sell to both businesses and consumers. In a way, this is already partly the case with 3d party DSL, who still use telco cables.
This would also open up the way for "naked" connections, such as a connection that has NO services beyond the IP address you get. (Which is all I need as I am paying for several domains already for emial and webhosting.)
I don't think it will happen any time soon though..... and in the mean time, the U.S. will keep falling behind. What will it take for the U.S. to get back in the top 10? |
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Take a look at that news post about Sonic.net. That's a company that's actually trying to broaden their services for the consumer and keep prices conservative ($70 for 1Gbps, two phone lines, and no cap) so they can compete with companies like AT&T and Comcast. These are the people who will help drive competition in the country and hopefully bring us back up. It'll take time, but it could work out in the long run.
Sadly, everybody here running U-Verse has pretty much reached the end of the road. Until AT&T runs FTTH and does it right (eg not restricted like it is now), we're stuck in a spot with no innovation. I've been tempted to switch to Comcast for internet just because of the fact that they have room to innovate and are trying to do so. They're increasing the capabilities of their plans at no cost... I like it. |
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said by saladbar15:Take a look at that news post about Sonic.net. That's a company that's actually trying to broaden their services for the consumer and keep prices conservative ($70 for 1Gbps, two phone lines, and no cap) so they can compete with companies like AT&T and Comcast. These are the people who will help drive competition in the country and hopefully bring us back up. It'll take time, but it could work out in the long run.
Competition is a good thing. In reality .. you really need 3 or 4 players to actually compete for the sake of innovation and efficiency.
5 years ago cable companies were dinosaurs and where uverse and fois came to town ..they nearly went bankrupt (charter did here) ... cable companies are now forced to shape up and innovate. Not that I'm an advocate for cable companies either ...but they seem to be getting better and better by the day.
Sonic or Google could be that 3rd wheel we all need to get things going.
I envision 3 types of service providers eventually available ... super-low cost (think target or Kmart) ... some mid level provider (macy's / Dillards) and some superior high end service provider (Nordstrom, Saks, Nieman Marcus). All of these types of markets have their place in society ..and serve their purpose.
Right now most of us have something between Walmart service and DirecTV customer support ... with Saks pricing.
Sadly, everybody here running U-Verse has pretty much reached the end of the road. Until AT&T runs FTTH and does it right (eg not restricted like it is now), we're stuck in a spot with no innovation. I've been tempted to switch to Comcast for internet just because of the fact that they have room to innovate and are trying to do so. They're increasing the capabilities of their plans at no cost... I like it.
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maartenaElmo
Premium Member
join:2002-05-10
Orange, CA |
to saladbar15
said by saladbar15:Take a look at that news post about Sonic.net. That's a company that's actually trying to broaden their services for the consumer and keep prices conservative ($70 for 1Gbps, two phone lines, and no cap) so they can compete with companies like AT&T and Comcast. These are the people who will help drive competition in the country and hopefully bring us back up. It'll take time, but it could work out in the long run. Yep. I talked (emailed) with one of their engineers. They are basically a "mom and pop" ISP, currently serving the San Francisco bay area. The will NOT be coming down to Southern California (or anywhere else in the country) any time soon, as it is expensive to expand, and they need to recoup some of their current investments first. I asked if they had any plans to come to Orange County/Los Angeles in 2012, or before 2013. They were honest with me and told me not to get my hopes up any time soon. I am talking about their VDSL project, the "U-verse" competition so to speak. Their regular DSL is available in many, many more places. |
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to maartena
will NEVER happen. Plus for the most part it already is that way. the Actual ILEC is NOT the actual wholesale company. They are own and operate another company that handles that- just has BT does- they own and operate OpenReach which does the samething. |
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| hottboiinnc4 |
to StLCardsFan
Charter did NOT go bankrupt due to FiOS and U-Verse. They went bankrupt due to their cash limits and buying up all those rural areas at once for high dollars and NOT being able to make anything. Comcast hardly went bankrput due to FiOS or DSL. TWC isn't in that boat either- and they compete more directly with U-Verse than any other provider in the country.
I don't see CableVision having any cash issues with with FiOS being in their area. |
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