 linicxCaveat EmptorPremium
join:2002-12-03
United State
 ·Cass Communicati..
 ·CenturyLink
| And the loser is??? I didn't learn what lousy programming and inept service was until I moved to Missouri a few years ago. After a few long months of bad excuses I installed a big dish. I quickly learned most of the programming I had been paying for was free; most of the pay channels cost less than 50 cents a month; and I could create my own "cable" package that included all National stations ABC, PBS, C-SPAN, etc., major national channels like WGN, four news feeds including CNN and HNN plus seven HBO channels for $20 a month. The feeds from Mexico, Canada, and Germany were free as were the hundreds of radio stations that were offered. I certainly was not limited to the poor choices currently offered in the digital scheme.
When I moved to Oklahoma and our outstanding neighborhood system was sold, I learned what how really bad cable programming can be and I installed a small dish only to learn it was nothing more than expanded cable offered at twice the cost of local -- and most of that programming was free on the big dish too!
Now cable subscribers are faced with the digital act that is supposed to be completed in the next couple of years. I have COX CABLE. They handled this roll-over problem so sweetly we never noticed until some programs we regularly watched were no longer available to analog subscribers. HBO is very much available to every analog subscriber in the US. Of this I am positive, because I see scrambled feeds 24/7 at home. COX will only deliver it to digital subscribers. They SAY it isn't available any other way. I say they are liars. It IS available. They won't remove the block to a $10 program as long as they can force residents to buy a $60 package.
ATT and SWB have a death grip where I live. They are bullies just like Saddam and bin Laden. FCC and its rulings don't have any more effect on CLEC and Telco than the UN and its resolutions has over rogue nation thugs.
Neither the UN, FCC, or USSC wants to take responsibility, but they all want pay checks for doing nothing more than resolving small issues. Thus while these do-nothings issue empty threats, the big business thugs reach deeper and deeper into our pockets. Nothing will change until the people who have the power to enforce their own rules, regulations, and resolutions FIND THE GUTS to do it.
Until then it is a moot subject. The only winner is the company with their name on the front page. Even negative commentary is free advertising.
We got what we wanted. Now either put up with it quietly, or do something about it. DSL Reports would be a good place to start a petition, and you can bet it would get a lot of support nationwide. Congress cannot ignore hundreds of thousands of 'complainants' when presented together. Digital media is just as valid as its paper counterpart if prepared properly by a member of the legal community.
If we continue to do nothing more than whine, the real loser is you and me. |
