4 ms·

Electric cables can be shared by different companies because they still have the differentiator of how they get the electricity they sell you. Either they make

by dudul 5y ago

Electric cables can be shared by different companies because they still have the differentiator of how they get the electricity they sell you. Either they make it, or buy it and negotiate prices, etc. The electricity is the product, not how they get it to your house. What would be a differentiator for ISPs if the infrastructure was completely shared? The internet would be the same.

cratermoon 5y ago
oh, you have NO IDEA. How about: not hijacking your DNS to redirect domains? not using traffic shaping to favor content the ISP makes money from over other content? Not blocking torrent ports? Not having monthly usage caps? Not filtering or blocking content based on country of origin? Not blocking Tor? Not requiring you to rent the router/modem from the ISP and have them control it? In other words, all those Net Neutrality things that the FCC took away. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality
- dudul 5y ago
  You do realize most of these things have very little impact on cost and are barely understandable for random normies. Tor? DNS? Like they're gonna put that in their marketing campaign?
  - cratermoon 5y ago
    I just happened to mention ones that would resonate with HN readers. Usage caps, filtering sites, and requiring modem rental are things that ordinary users care about. Remember that Comcast was rated "worst company in America" twice at Consumerist, and was runner up twice, and appeared in the final four two more times. As far as impact on cost, do you mean "cost to the consumer" or "cost to the company"?
    - dudul 5y ago
      Comcast is the most hated company in America mostly because it charges random things that customers never authorized, because of how it structures its TV packages and because its support usually sucks. At least that's what I got from a quick google search. Nobody mentions data caps or filtering sites. As for modem rentals, again, most normies don't even know you can buy a modem at BestBuy. As for costs, I meant costs passed to the consumer. If we assume that the infrastructure is shared by 5 ISPs and they all contribute to its maintenance/upgrades. All ISPs offer the same down/up speeds and the reliability of the infrastructure is identical. What are the knobs to adjust costs to the customer and have them pick you? Pay support people less, have them work in shitty offices, do shady stuff with customer data. Maybe I'm not creative enough but other than reducing your internal cost of operation what can you do?

by dudul 5y ago

cratermoon 5y ago

oh, you have NO IDEA. How about: not hijacking your DNS to redirect domains? not using traffic shaping to favor content the ISP makes money from over other content? Not blocking torrent ports? Not having monthly usage caps? Not filtering or blocking content based on country of origin? Not blocking Tor? Not requiring you to rent the router/modem from the ISP and have them control it? In other words, all those Net Neutrality things that the FCC took away. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Net_neutrality

dudul 5y ago
You do realize most of these things have very little impact on cost and are barely understandable for random normies. Tor? DNS? Like they're gonna put that in their marketing campaign?
- cratermoon 5y ago
  I just happened to mention ones that would resonate with HN readers. Usage caps, filtering sites, and requiring modem rental are things that ordinary users care about. Remember that Comcast was rated "worst company in America" twice at Consumerist, and was runner up twice, and appeared in the final four two more times. As far as impact on cost, do you mean "cost to the consumer" or "cost to the company"?
  - dudul 5y ago
    Comcast is the most hated company in America mostly because it charges random things that customers never authorized, because of how it structures its TV packages and because its support usually sucks. At least that's what I got from a quick google search. Nobody mentions data caps or filtering sites. As for modem rentals, again, most normies don't even know you can buy a modem at BestBuy. As for costs, I meant costs passed to the consumer. If we assume that the infrastructure is shared by 5 ISPs and they all contribute to its maintenance/upgrades. All ISPs offer the same down/up speeds and the reliability of the infrastructure is identical. What are the knobs to adjust costs to the customer and have them pick you? Pay support people less, have them work in shitty offices, do shady stuff with customer data. Maybe I'm not creative enough but other than reducing your internal cost of operation what can you do?