[MNJohnnie]

Amazing. How utterly rabibly stupid. This article is SO divorced from even a noding reality with truth I am surprised anyone wasted time on it

[George Smiley]

Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our every move in cyberspace in a vast data-collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency.

Does the name GOOGLE ring a bell?

[rattrap]

read later

[UseYourHead]

Oh no, they are going to force everyone to us AOL!!!

[auboy]

Rag should change name to The Notion.

[thecabal]

As Ed Whitacre, chairman and CEO of AT&T, told Business Week in November, "Why should they be allowed to use my pipes? The Internet can't be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment, and for a Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!"

Gee, and here I thought that all the money I'm paying for broadband access and web hosting is covering these costs. Apparently I'm just a bandwidth leech. Poor AT&T, getting robbed blind.

[ShadowAce]

See this thread also

[Richard Kimball]

Bump for later. Thanks for the post.

[aculeus]

The Nation said ... Alger Hiss was framed, KLA flight 700 was spying for the CIA, and the Internet will be privatized.

[Element187]

No politician would ever go along with this... instant political death.

[lilylangtree]

Dang!

[advance_copy]

Industry planners are mulling new subscription plans that would further limit the online experience, establishing "platinum," "gold" and "silver" levels of Internet access that would set limits on the number of downloads, media streams or even e-mail messages that could be sent or received.

No different than the old usage based charges (i.e. time connected in minutes of use). That worked for a while, until other providers came along and offered unlimited service. Competition is key.

[Xenalyte]

Actually, this is the end of the Internet.

[HAL9000]

As Ed Whitacre, chairman and CEO of AT&T, told Business Week in November, "Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?...

Because Ed's "pipes" are running through my private property. I should have the right to charge AT&T rent or cut the wires. Everyone who is giving AT&T free use of their property should have that right too.

[Tolkien]

The United States is the 19th ranked nation in household broadband connectivity rate, just ahead of Slovenia. Want to know why? Because, contends telecom analyst Bruce Kushnick, the Bell Companies never delivered symmetrical fiber-optic connectivity to millions of Americans though they were paid more than $200 billion to do it. According to Kushnick's book, "$200 Billion Broadband Scandal", during the buildup to the 1996 Telecommunications Reform Act, the major U.S. telcos promised to deliver fiber to 86 million households by 2006 (we're talking about fiber to the home, here).

They asked for, and were given, some $200 billion in tax cuts and other incentives to pay for it. But the Bells didn't spend that money on fiber upgrades -- they spent it on long distance, wireless and inferior DSL services. Some headlines from Kushnick's work:

By 2006, 86 million households should have been rewired with a fiber optic wire, capable of 45 Mbps, in both directions.

The public subsidies for infrastructure were pocketed. The phone companies collected over $200 billion in higher phone rates and tax perks, about $2000 per household.

The World is Laughing at US. Korea and Japan have 100 Mbps services as standard, and America could have been Number One had the phone companies actually delivered. Instead, we are 16th in broadband and falling in technology dominance.

A damning list of indictments, and one that puts the telcos' demands for a two-tiered Internet in harsh perspective (see " 'Course what we'd really like to do is 'prioritize' some of these services right out of business ..." and "Interesting approach, Bill; why don't you try it on your phone network first?"). We paid an estimated $2000 per household for fiber to the home and instead got DSL over the old copper wiring. As Kushnick notes, that's like ordering a Ferrari and getting a bicycle. The Bells should be ashamed.

By JOHN PACZKOWSKI

[longtermmemmory]

bellsouth does this now with its different levels of DSL speed. (and charging one price for home DSL and anther for business for the same level of "service")


no thanks.

I think bellsouth will have a rude awakening if vonage really starts to dig into their customer base.

[visualops]

As soon as I read this:

Consider what would happen if an online advertisement promoting nuclear power prominently popped up on a cable broadband page, while a competing message from an environmental group was relegated to the margins.

I knew I was in lefty la-la land.

[Sofa King]

How, exactly, are these companies going to increase their profits by making their product far less desirable to use? What business has ever followed this pattern of behavior? This article only makes the slightest bit of sense if you believe that corporations are fun by evil monsters who want to screw up over just for the hell of it. In other words, the type of person who reads The Nation.

[Moonman62]

"Why should they be allowed to use my pipes? The Internet can't be free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made an investment, and for a Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts!"

Because if it weren't for those content companies, nobody at the customer end would want to pay for your stupid pipe. They are doing you a favor you nitwit.

[Bigh4u2]

"establishing "platinum," "gold" and "silver" levels of Internet access"

Anyone remember PRODIGY?

When it first came out it had a similar scheme.