4 ms·

The problem with monopolies in critical utilities is that screwing over customers does not hurt the bottom line. My only choice for ISP (excluding 4g cell, ds

The problem with monopolies in critical utilities is that screwing over customers does not hurt the bottom line. My only choice for ISP (excluding 4g cell, dsl) is twc they flat out lied to me when I was signing up, the service while fast most of the time suffers random spikes frequently. The only other choice I have is forego the Internet but let's be honest thats not an option at all.

NoPiece 10y ago
Is your DSL option so bad that it is worse than foregoing the internet in your choice space?
- rhizome 10y ago
  Yeah, I've been using DSL for 15 years without hassle and never understand the exclusion. Sure, I don't get to brag about the 1.21 gigabits my bill says I'm supposed to be receiving (and constantly complain about not actually getting), but otherwise it's pretty much anything I could ask for in an internet connection.
malloryerik 10y ago
In South Korea I have a 5 gigabit connection for $20/month. I could have chosen between at least three competing companies, and that's for regular land lines. The US is so much larger than the South Korea, but this shows that it is possible to have three companies' wires going through the same space. Interestingly the same companies provide telephone and TV; there's no distinction as far as I know between a phone and a cable company. They are data network companies. Btw you can read an interesting history of phone monopoly in Jeremy Rifkin's "Zero Marginal Cost Society," starting at page 49. From a technical perspective, couldn't you theoretically have a network of big tubes with several company wires inside? Maybe the mother tube could be paid for by municipalities, and then individual companies could add their wires to without having to rip everything up each time? The companies then pay for the space in the tube, perhaps like licensing air waves? There are probably problems with this, but isn't there a better way to accommodate competition? The situation in the US is awful.
- rashkov 10y ago
  You're basically describing what some parts of Europe have, where the municipality owns a data center building in the middle of town, and runs a wire from that building to various buildings around town. The ISPs also have their equipment in that building, and they all have access to the wire that runs to your home.

NoPiece 10y ago

Is your DSL option so bad that it is worse than foregoing the internet in your choice space?

rhizome 10y ago
Yeah, I've been using DSL for 15 years without hassle and never understand the exclusion. Sure, I don't get to brag about the 1.21 gigabits my bill says I'm supposed to be receiving (and constantly complain about not actually getting), but otherwise it's pretty much anything I could ask for in an internet connection.

malloryerik 10y ago

In South Korea I have a 5 gigabit connection for $20/month. I could have chosen between at least three competing companies, and that's for regular land lines. The US is so much larger than the South Korea, but this shows that it is possible to have three companies' wires going through the same space. Interestingly the same companies provide telephone and TV; there's no distinction as far as I know between a phone and a cable company. They are data network companies. Btw you can read an interesting history of phone monopoly in Jeremy Rifkin's "Zero Marginal Cost Society," starting at page 49. From a technical perspective, couldn't you theoretically have a network of big tubes with several company wires inside? Maybe the mother tube could be paid for by municipalities, and then individual companies could add their wires to without having to rip everything up each time? The companies then pay for the space in the tube, perhaps like licensing air waves? There are probably problems with this, but isn't there a better way to accommodate competition? The situation in the US is awful.

rashkov 10y ago
You're basically describing what some parts of Europe have, where the municipality owns a data center building in the middle of town, and runs a wire from that building to various buildings around town. The ISPs also have their equipment in that building, and they all have access to the wire that runs to your home.