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| reply to jseymour
Re: "Duopoly Power?" Do you "need" to drive a car to work?
There are a lot of things that aren't "needed" but they are nice to have, and it doesn't mean people should be extorted to use them.
Something else that sticks in my craw is VZ getting rid of unlimited data. For some reason it is "a-ok" for VZ to break a contract and charge me more, but if I wanted to break a contract I would have to pay an ETF.
Your analogy about tv is completely wrong, there were actually several articles about "cable cutters" on here even.
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I'm not going there to die. I'm going there to see if i really am alive. | |
| In fact: I do. I live in a rural-ish area. There is absolutely no mass transit at all. None. Nada. Zip.
But your point is made, nonetheless, as I chose to live where I live and work where I work. So I must bear the expenses attendant to my choices. I do not complain about it. I do not protest to the "news" media about it.
said by Swordfish II:There are a lot of things that aren't "needed" but they are nice to have, If they're merely "nice to have," then they are not necessities, therefor such expenditures are discretionary, therefor...
said by Swordfish II:... and it doesn't mean people should be extorted to use them. One can hardly be "extorted" when the expenditure is discretionary.
said by Swordfish II:Your analogy about tv is completely wrong, there were actually several articles about "cable cutters" on here even.
My analogy is quite close. (No analogy is 100% correct.) The "cable cutters" are cutting cable in favour of OTA TV, now that digital TV arrived, and content delivery over broadband. Before then they just had to have their subscription TV (can't live w/o those TV shows, you know), and the subscription TV services gouged them for it. The ones still on the cord are still being gouged, and still complaining about it.
My point is: If it's discretionary: Either pay the price or stop buying it. Paying for a non-necessity and then complaining about the cost is lame. There are many things I'd like to have. Many, many things. They are either beyond my means or cost more than I can justify, so I simply do not buy them.
Mobile data, for the vast majority of its users, is almost certainly a non-necessity. | |
rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO
1 edit | I applaud you for not complaining about rural inequities. Many cry about not having broadband or various other "utilities" such as public water and sewer. Many even cry, "the government should do something" (translation: divert urban tax revenues).
However, I must disagree regarding the data plan comments. I'll bet most with a smart phone use maps and various apps that help them find things when they are out and about. While maps could be cached locally and some apps do that, the "free maps" that don't cost extra (such as the map app built into the iOS) require a data connection to function. Related to maps and exceptionally useful to every smart phone owner is live traffic and weather updates. Who, upon learning about these features, doesn't use them during the daily drive or various outdoor activities?
While I agree Facebook updates, chat programs, Facetime, Shazam/Soundhound, always available e-mail and scores of other "apps" that need data connections are perhaps not universally valuable to smart phone owners, most smart phone owners are using one or several of these apps and all require data connections.
I'd even go so far as to say that an extremely low percentage of smart phone users wouldn't notice if mobile data wasn't part of their package. It's just too integrated into the smart phone experience. So much so that a IMO, a smart phone is pretty limited without a data connection and I don't think you are saying most smartphone users don't need smartphones, right? | |
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