Net Neutrality...

Mon Jul 14 23:19:11 UTC 2014

On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Naslund, Steve <SNaslund at medline.com>
wrote:

> I think what will really drive everything is the market forces.  You
> either provide what your end user wants or you go out of business.

There's the problem.  In my neck of the woods, there is one and only one
provider.  They have a guaranteed monopoly for the next few decades.  They
got a huge grant to put in FTTH from the government and they still have
pricing from the last decade.

An 8/1 connection is $120/mo and require you to get dialtone (they say it's
FCC mandated) to the tune of an additional $20/mo (that's with no long
distance and every possible feature stripped).  (Side-note: when the power
fails during the winter, they turn off all internet access after 5 minutes
so they can save battery power for the phones--which travel the exact same
fiber path as the interntet).

I'm not a huge fan of Comcast's recent actions, but if they rolled into the
area with the same offer they have "in town" (100/25 for ~$75/mo), I would
switch faster than you could spell monopoly.

There's plenty of fiber lying within 1/4 mile from my house (runs between
Seattle and Portland), but none of the companies are interested in being a
local ISP, or leasing to a non-business, and I couldn't afford to start my
own, let alone trenching my own fiber to other residents who are also fed
up.

It doesn't matter to me what "the big players" do because as a consumer, I
still don't have a choice.  So while I find my local provider's practices
utterly despicable, I can't exactly speak with my wallet unless I quit
being an IT guy, cancel my internet, and start raising goats or something.

-A