The weekend and I usually post on something different from my normal postings…..today I want to talk about the internet service.
We all have had problems with our service and/or our providers, right? For me it is a slow service at times usually in the early morning hours or a loss of service at critical times in my postings…….usually it comes with me ranting and swearing profusely…..and my blood pressure going through the roof…..after I calm down I try to look at it rationally which usually makes the blood pressure rise again…….
But what could be causing the problems that I and many others have to deal with….regularly? There may be a good answer to that question……
Thanks to new FCC rules put out this year to ensure net neutrality and keep all online data equal, major Internet service providers (think Verizon, AT&T, Time Warner) aren’t supposed to hold our Internet speeds hostage. But that’s exactly what’s happening, per a study by an Internet activist group, causing a hefty slowdown to 75% of wireline businesses and residences, the Guardian reports. Battle for the Net’s study, which checked out results from 300,000 Internet users, found what the paper calls “significant degradations” on the networks of the five largest ISPs, which means we’re paying for traffic speed we’re just not getting. “There is widespread and systemic abuse across the network,” says a rep from one of the groups that comprises Battle for the Net.
The ISPs are already being forced to react to these net neutrality rules: AT&T was hit with a $100 million fine last week for slowing down Internet speeds of customers with supposedly unlimited data plans, per the Washington Post, while Sprint cut out its “data-throttling” procedure of slowing down speeds of customers also believed to be using an excessive amount of data, CNET notes. But the ISPs don’t think they should be regulated as public utilities are, which is effectively what the FCC decided back in February, and AT&T in particular is fighting back against the “unprecedented” and “unjustified” rules it says is damaging its business, CBS Washington reports. (“Radical” changes are needed to fix our antiquated Internet, a Gizmodo writer says.)
CRAP! There goes my pressure again!
TAKE THAT YOU SOUL-LESS SON OF A BITCH!
I’m not sure if Canuckistan allows “throttling”, but I’d sure like to “throttle” the 2 completely useless mega-corps that provide the vast majority of all Canuckistan’s Internet connections, Bell & Rogers. Not only that, they provide most Canadians cable/satellite TV service…and most TV channels on that service…and much of its radio & some newspapers. You get the idea. (4 corps = about 99% of all media in Canuckistan) This despite decades of deregulation to “increase competition” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!
And guess what? The lousiest services known to mankind. They’re FANTASTIC at peddling and hyping their shitty, overpriced, services! But the services themselves? They make me want to go back to areal TV and dial-up modems. Both were far more reliable….and free!
Well said! Every time I see a story about the social media plays in say the Arab Spring….I think how can they afford to be on social media? I mean they make about $50 a month…..This is such a con job, as you said…..
You know stuff for free is against capitalism?
Well, the TV broadcasts had ads and the dial-up modem was just another local call on my bill. Yet somehow, these guys still made shitloads of money from my “free media” consumption.
As for the Arab Spring, iDiots like to give “social media” all the credit for shit that never needed “social media” to happen. Why? Because it “justifies” how they spend their empty lives getting into poop-throwing competitions and snooping through other people’s shit. “Look! The Twit Zone is important! It made Egypt a democracy! See, I’m not wasting my life!”
Somebody tell me how the Iranian Revolution happened without Loserbook & The Twit Zone! Shit, most of them didn’t even have land-line telephones. If anything, “social media” makes it easier for government to track, monitor, imprison and sentence people. I’m sure half the people in Egyptian prisons are there because of their “social media” connections.
My point on the Spring thing was how can they afford wifi? I mean look what it cost here. If they can get it cheap what is the secret?
Yeah, your point was a tad less “tangential” to the topic than mine. Mind you, that didn’t make my comment any less accurate, or enjoyable to write.
Much like electricity in India, I’m sure there’s a LOT of unauthorized Wifi “borrowing” going on. We in North America have politicos preforming fellatio on Big Media, writing the laws they want and unleashing squadrons of Intellectual Property Thought Police on folks just trying to use their computers. I’m sure these Arab countries have virtually none of that. (Hell, aside from their militaries, they don’t have much government to speak of.) So, people are free to unleash their -er- “budget driven creativity”.
But to potentially explain it purely economically… The Internet is a drug far worse than heroin. Junkies will pay whatever it takes to get their fix. Drug dealers are businessmen and will charge “whatever the market will bear”. The North American market can bear a hell of a lot more than the broke-ass Arab’s market. Or, think of it like those ultra-cheap drug prices at Mexican pharmacies. Big Pharma sells the same pills in Mexico at a fraction of the price they sell them for just 5 minutes further north.
In a Free Market, price is not a function of product cost. Price is a function of ability to pay. Unless “socialism” rears it’s ugly, anti-American, head and does something unthinkably evil like tell its regulators to regulate Big Pharma or Big Media for the good of its citizens, Americans will pay more for Internet and their other drugs…at least until Americans are as broke as Haitians. Only then will you see prices drop.
In short, capitalism at work.
Those evil socialist Euro-weenies pay a lot less for far better Internet service than we do, basically because their governments want it that way and are willing to tell some of the EXACT same communications companies America has “That’s how it’s going to be, assholes”. But instead of leaving Europe because they can’t make money, they sell better service for lower prices.
http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/28/why-is-european-broadband-faster-and-cheaper-blame-the-governme/
Funny -eh?
read these stories about the better broadband elsewhere and think maybe they have a good idea…It seems that, at least to me, that a cheaper internet would benefit society….maybe not the corporations…….personally, I do a lot of research and still do most of it from books and articles…….I take about a ba-zillon notes and work off them for my stuff…….but I am a junkie for research….must be the brain worms……LOL