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My town is crooked. They let the cable company run broadband cables but made it near impossible for Verizon to be a competitor. They told them if they couldnt run the fiber optics in 6 months then they are not allowed. It would take a few years and they knew it.
So we have no where to go when being screwed by the cable company
In central Florida, Bright House Networks represented a very strong, highly regarded ISP with fair prices, high speeds, and a community-focused business model. Charter communications came in and bought them up under the “Spectrum” label, and while so far Internet speeds and pricing haven’t changed much, the general distaste for Charter still lingers. I get solid bandwidth and have yet to experience any negatives with Spectrum, but they represent a sizeable portion of central Florida Internet users.
There isn’t much in the way of competition where I live. There’s always FIOS, but Verizon isn’t well liked. It’s really terrible that we’re not farther along with broadband nowadays. The infrastructure is there, esp. in large metros like the Tampa Bay area. 500 mbps or higher bandwidth should be generally available, but they keep customers throttled under the banner of infrastructure safeguarding. Fiber optics cris-cross the nation and can handle far more than their current loads.
I love Comcast, they are an over-flowing cup of human goodness.
I love Facebook, they are an over-flowing cup of human goodness.
I love Twitter, they are an over-flowing cup of human goodness.
I love Google, they are an over-flowing cup of human goodness.
Is that knocking at the door I hear?
I built CATV systems in the 80s and 90s.
There was not a single community in MA, CT, or NH that had an exclusive contract. Of course, you needed to negotiate a license. But that license was not exclusive.
Competitors did not have the money to build a complete other system, meeting the community requirements that we needed to meet.
Franchise meetings were shakedowns by fat local politicians.
That experience, while I was in my 20s, turned my stomach and made me hate politicians as I discovered they are almost ALL corrupt,
my power company is my new provider after the mom and pop went out of business. The offer 200 mbs for $50.00 a month and a gig for $80. They also offer various cable packages.
“Anybody out there that is happy with their residential service? “
I have 1 gig up and down. Community broadband. I has Centurylink and it was horrible.
Had.
One of the few instances where the Left in this country actually does have a point.
The unholy alliance between corporate America and corrupt politicians is one of the most serious problems that needs to be solved.
BFL
I am not so sure that where wires are concerned that competition has always helped.
AT&T had no competition when they moved from operator assisted long distance to direct-dial long distance. They did advance the household equipment over the years and I think in general the service was always reliable. They were even in on the very earliest advances with cell phone technology - back when Bell Labs was then doing top research.
Look at all that WAS done when AT&T was the only phone monopoly in the U.S.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_telephone
Of course it did take the breakup of AT&T and FCC regulation changes that went with that before Americans could go buy their own land line phone instead of paying rental on one from the phone company every month. Not long after we started getting the cordless phones.
That might be one place where some regulation could hit the cable monopolies - free up the supply of the cable set-top boxes so folks can buy them, from retailers, and quit paying many times over their cost to rent them every month. Of course, as that (the set top box rental) is gravy for the cable companies, their response may be to just raise their rates further.
The BIGGEST one would be to FCC demand that customers be allowed to buy and hook up their own DVR. And why not. I have a dual cassette tape player plugged into an auxiliary slot on my stereo amplifier and I can put a cassette in an have it record whatever is playing on my amp. If the FCC regs allow that for music on your home stereo amplifier, why not for movies and shows shown from any source on your TV. You’ve paid for the initial showing, and now you just want a copy for your personal future use - like we do with music on our stereo.
To wit, Verizon's ToS for residential customers states, in part,
General Policy: Verizon reserves the sole discretion to deny or restrict your Service, or immediately to suspend or terminate your Service, if the use of your Service by you or anyone using it, in our sole discretion, violates the Agreement or other Verizon policies, is objectionable or unlawful...
use the service in any fashion for the transmission or dissemination .. in a manner that.. espouses, promotes or incites bigotry, hatred or racism;
The Comcast Cloud Solutions Terms of Service (for businesses) states, in part,
BY USING THE CLOUD SOLUTIONS MARKETPLACE YOU AGREE NOT TO post, upload, or distribute any User Submission (as defined in Section 8 below) or other content that is defamatory....inaccurate... or that a reasonable person could deem to be objectionable, offensive,...threatening, embarrassing, distressing, vulgar, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or otherwise inappropriate.
And the tendency is that of the Left taking what they see deemed in universities as being objectionable, threatening, inappropriate by etc. by a reasonable person and applying to society as a whole. And just who do they define to be "a reasonable person?"