[TriLUG] Move over Google: Wilson, NC did it a long, long time ago

[William Sutton via TriLUG]

On Sat, 28 Feb 2015, Steve Litt via TriLUG wrote:

> On Fri, 27 Feb 2015 20:22:17 +0000 (UTC)
> John Vaughters via TriLUG <trilug at trilug.org> wrote:
>
>> >When you have an imposed monopoly of one or two service providers
>> >who collude on contractual terms, they are identical to the behavior
>> >that you find so shocking in the government. 
>> I couldn't disagree more. 
>> 1st -  I make an agreement for a service and I know what service is
>> traded for pay. There is nothing hidden here.
>
> And they reneig on the agreement, and for practical purposes you can't
> say boo. Nothing hidden there either, they do it all the time.
>
>> 2nd - I do not agree
>> there is a monopoly. If this is such a clear monopoly, then the Gov.
>> should attack that with monopoly laws on the books.
>
> The government should have attacked the broadband carriers with
> monopoly laws years ago. The government doesn't do that anymore:
> They're too afraid of people who shout that everything the government
> does is evil.

Case in point:  the Comcast-NBC-Universal merger.  Anyone with any sort of 
sense could see that this was bad for the consumer, but they let it go 
anyway.  Now Comcast^WXFinity wants to swallow Time-Warter.  They have a 
lot of radio ads going in the DC Metro area to pursuade our congress 
critters why this is a good idea.  What they fail to mention is that for 
years they've been sucking the customers dry while providing ever worse 
service.  For example, when they shifted everyone off the analog channels 
to their digital service, they started by dropping channels, and then 
proceeded to degrading the remaining analog channels, then professed 
ignorance when complaints were registered.

The only case in recent memory where the Government has actively pursued 
anyone or anything is the BP-Deepwater Horizon disaster, where at the 
outset of the trial they announced that they wanted the maximum penalty of 
$17 billion.  Of course, that makes sense given that Democratic 
administrations typically have a mandate from their constituents to push 
for environmental regulation.

>
>> 3rd - A
>> corporation is not a Gov. entity and owes no transparency to anyone
>> other than what is required to be a corporation under US laws.4th -
>> FCC is a Gov. entity and we are their employer and they owe us an
>> explanation for their actions. This concept seems to be lost on the
>> young. 
>
> They gave us an explanation. We're paying double the money for half the
> performance of other developed countries, and it's all going in the
> pockets of the broadband vendors. Won't invest? Hell, they haven't
> been investing. Now they just have an even lamer excuse.

Yup.  It's been a cash cow for the broadband providers.  That's why 
they've gone to such trouble to keep competition to a minimum.  For 
example, making cities sign exclusive licensing agreements.  Huntsville, 
AL, for example, was a franchisee of Comcast.  If you wanted anything 
else, you were going to be getting satellite.  No Verizon, no Cox, no TWC. 
On the border between Alexandria, VA and Arlington, VA, there's a section 
that can be serviced by either Cox -or- Comcast.  Prices there are 
routinely $30/month lower than places where either of the companies has 
exclusive territory.  Explain to me again how "Together is Better", 
Comcast.

>
> Maybe the young people know that the government they pay taxes to is
> charged with protecting them from oligopolies. Or maybe the young read
> history books, explaining why laws were made to bust up the likes of
> Standard Oil in the first place.

Doubtful...The current crop of youngsters (and frankly some of the older 
folks too) seem to have bought in to "Hope and Change".  What they didn't 
realize is that they really bought "rope-a-dope".  It's one thing to be 
young and idealistic, it's another when you actually have to make your 
paycheck stretch and you suddenly realize that that "free healthcare" you 
voted for isn't actually free.

>
> SteveT
>
> Steve Litt                *  http://www.troubleshooters.com/
> Troubleshooting Training  *  Human Performance
>
> -- 
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