Some truth about Comcast - WikiLeaks style

Tue Dec 21 15:19:46 UTC 2010

On 12/21/10 1:42 AM, Robert Bonomi wrote:
> Bzzt!  It's -not- illegal to put a letter inside a FedEx box.  It just has
> to have the appropriate (USPS) postage on it, _as_well_ as paying the FedEx
> service/delivery fee.  This is true if it is just the letter you're sending,
> or if it is a sealed letter -inside- a box/package being shipped..
>
> Now _live_scorpions_, on the other hand, are someting that the USPS _will_
> delive, but AFAIK no 'express' service will handle.  (One discovers some
> of the strangest things when one actually sits down and *reads* the _complete_
> rules/regulation on a subject.  In this case, it's the "Domestic Mail Manual".
> Scorpions are 'addressed' in 601.9.3.10)
>
Kudos to you!  It's been 20+ years since I've had a copy of the DMM!

To bring this back to the topic at hand, the USPS has worked pretty well
and fairly efficiently for 200+ years.  It provides universal service to every
(US) destination at uniform rates for all content, with some variation by size.

Its competitors provide cherry-picked service only to specific areas, and even
then at variable rates, by distance *and* by volume.  As noted, FedEx simply
doesn't deliver some types of content.

The lesson here is that we need to decided what it is we are offering.  As an
ISP, we never offered different rates by distance or for different types of
traffic.  We did offer different rates for different sized pipes (aka volume).
That is, we offered more USPS-like than FedEx-like service.

And we certainly never expect to make more money from wealthier deliveries,
because their content is possibly more valuable!  AFAIK, FedEx doesn't either.

The Comcast proposed business model is simply wrong, and unsustainable without
essentially being a protection racket.  Pay us more money or your service will
be kneecapped....

We have laws against extortion.