Slashdot Mirror
Baby Bells Promise Broadband Stagnation
twitter writes "According to this NYT article the Baby Bells will not be developing their 'high-speed networks' despite their recently granted DSL monopoly because they were not granted local phone monopolies. 'Here is a lot of crying crybaby reaction to the decision.' says Mr. Powell."
Government "watched" corporations are never going to provided the services users want
when they want them, how they want them.
The only way we are going to get broadband across the board is if the government mandates
it, and takes it upon themselves to install and run it. As soon as it's left up to
a corporation todo, they're going to not provide services to the customers that are expensive.
Why? Because thats the point of a corporation. They want to make a profit. Period.
Private corporations are not the ideal method of provided uniform services, because not
everyone can be served at uniform cost.
The sooner we realize this, and stop trying to privatize everything, we'll be better off
Looks like theres a flaw in the market.
They were handed a monopoly on a product, but refuse to develop it due to corporate greed. Im sorry, but this is bullshit. Theres a demand and the ONLY reason the supply isnt being filled is due to some perverted hyper-greed. Give people bandwidth dammit. It should be like gas, electricity, and water. A new utility.
Can the gvt just say "fine, were revoking your monopoly then." ?
Would they do it?
This pisses me off.
no
Not only that (lack of broadband Internet access) but what about lack of competing broadband providers? Broadband is still relatively scarce in this country and a lot of places fortunate enough to have broadband have only 1 provider who can soak us for 50+ bucks a months for our internet access. Why not complain? Sure they can do what ever they want with their equipment but the consumers (thats us) far too often are getting screwed.
Conserve Oil, Recycle, Boycott Walmart
Does this mean that I'm going to have to switch to goddamn SBC for my DSL access? I've been more than happy with Earthlink, and the only company I would switch to is SpeakEasy. Both of those only provide me access through Baby Bell infrastructure.
So these Bells are whining about being forced to demonopolize the telephone infrastructure which the US government financed? They want to be a deregulated monopoly on what they were given for free?
It's not even really their equipment. Before the "deregulation" of telephone services, much of the infrastructure was built on taxpayer dollars.
God forbid we try and have a little bit of say in what we paid for. I for one am not okay with the Bells having control of the copper. They have historically proven to suck at properly managing it.
Overrated Moderation: This posts sucks... because.
My guess is that you are sitting on a nice fat pipe there at your school. If you were one of the unfortunate ones that is stuck with dial-up because a giant conglomerate refuses to develop the technology in one monopoly because the government won't hand them another, I'm sure you would be calling foul on the Baby Bells as well.
These companies have a responsibility to the public. It would be one thing if they did not have the infrastructure to support broadband or develop it. But to have it and not develop it simply because they want to be the only player on the block seems very irresponsible to me. And yet, they find it surprising that many people are dropping their Baby Bell-owned lines in favor of cellular phones and cable modem. If they're going to oust other broadband development out of business, it becomes their responsibility to develop the technology for the consumer. Sure they're out to turn a profit - but what profit do they make just sitting in the corner like little children throwing temper tantrums over not having all the cookies in the cookie jar?
If the Bells were doing their job, there would be far fewer of your crybabys yelling about lack of broadband access, and the broadband access would likely be higher quality to boot. That would allow you to download your mp3s even faster.
Here's to hoping that you get stuck on an old dial-up connection when the lustre and safety of academia wear off....
----
Wyntermute, resident psychopath
"Remember that you're unique - just like everyone else!"
There are other ways of getting Broadband then running copper up to the domicile. I use Vista Broadband in Santa Rosa California. If a little backwater like Santa Rosa can support several wireless internet providers, then most cities can.
If the Baby Bells want to stand in the way of progress, then we will just go around them. Just think, it will not be to long off when most people will use cell phones as their primary means of voice telecomunications. Many will just drop land line services. If the Baby Bells do not act quickly, they will be dead.
It's good for the D.C advertising market. The Washngton Post was absolutely chock full of advertsing directed at perhaps a dozen people. I would imagine that the radio stations were full of strange commercials.
It's rather comiic-- multibillion dollar faceless oligopolies, all jockeying for sympathy.
...I think I'd be reminding the Baby Bells that the same FCC that granted them a monopoly on the high speed networks they'll whine about rather than build - is the same FCC that controls the electromagnetic spectrum, and some new wireless bandwidths could 'magically appear' if they don't take the hint and accept what they've been graciously given, already.
When and where did the US gov pay for Ma Bell's switches and copper? Evidence please
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
This puts a fairly heavy damper on line-shared ADSL services, but you know what? The incumbants still CAN NOT provided end user dsl services.
But what about services like Qwest DSL you ask? Qwest does NOT provide the internet bound portion of the service, they simply handle the local loop, then hand off the connection to another partnered ISP. It's called their MegaHost service. The so-called Qwest direct dsl is provided through MSN.
I really, really hate this mentalitly of complaining about prices, always wanting cheaper! cheaper! But at the same time calling for Better! Better! I should be able to have a 1 mbit up and down dsl connection, guaranteed speeds, guaranteed 24x7 for 5 dollars a month! Blah I say
Amen to that. It's important to remember that neither the FCC nor PacBell have any real interest in the customers. They're merely a neccessary evil that has to be put up with in order to make money. (For a corporation, this is profits, for a governmental agency, this is votes.) If they could simply get the money without having to do any work (a.k.a. the IRS), they'd happily screw us all over.
Once you understand this principle, though, you can pit the two sides against each other, with hopefully the common man getting something out of the whole deal.
It's a dangerous thing to fight with giants, but we are many and it is our only chance.
-Brett
That's funny... my DSL connection was a breeze to set up, it's had perfect uptime in the almost 3 months I've had it, I wasn't pressured into buying anything else. In fact, I was surprised how simple it went and how reliable it's been. Maybe I'm the exception, but all these horror stories I've been reading about simply haven't come to pass. Yet. And I've seen no indication they will.
----------
Something clever...if we hadn't granted Ma Bell a monopoly on rights-of-way a long time ago.
As a libertarian, the concept of a regulated, government-granted monopoly is anathemic to me; however, what is the alternative here? Do we give the Baby Bells free reign to do whatever they want with the existing copper, and refuse other companies the ability to add lines to those rights-of-way?
I'm all for deregulation, but not unless the entire thing is deregulated: it must be possible for new companies to lay their own copper or run their own wireless WAN's without government regulating what lines can go where or handing out wireless spectrum as campaign donation quid pro quos. Don't do a California-style partial deregulation in which some parties are forced out of business due to the government's stepping on some necks but not others.
Also, where are all these goddamned leftist posters all coming from? If the government suddenly owned all the copper and ran all the DSL lines, we'd be stuck with lowest-common-denominator access. I wouldn't be able run a server with a static IP (as I do with speakeasy.net today); and I'd pay LOW, LOW advertised prices while Uncle Sam reaches into my wallet for some extra cash to subsidize access for people unwilling to pay the cost of it. Fuck them: I did well in school and work hard and should get something extra for that. DSL IS NOT A RIGHT!
Cheers,
Kyle
[ home ]
We own the wires just like we own the interstate highway system and the boulder dam. We paid to have them built. Sure, big contractors like Bechtel and Brown and Root were hired to build these things. But we can hire and fire the maintainers of our systems just as we hire and fire the people who mow our lawns.
Now, hiring and firing the institutions that maintain something like a national telecom infrastructure isn't to be taken lightly. It's not like a strip of pavement laid by one company always works as long as it touches the strip laid by someone else . . . there are "issues" here, and serious risks in switching.
Nevertheless, we can toss SBC/Verizon/Parasite Inc. just as quick as we could tell the Tennesee Valley Authority to take it's hands off a mis-managed dam or lock and hand it off to someone else.
I think that in some parts of the country it is approaching that point. Particularly the places (mis)administered by SBC.
umm.. it's called granting a monopoly. They face no competition and rake in the bucks. That's how consumers paid. There were also other things, such as granting them free access to public and private land in order to allow lines to be run, and various fees that the government lets them charge consumers.
It amuses me how so many people speak of this as if water and electricity were some sort of undeniable right. Now if the telegraph started arbitrarily refusing service, you might have something reasonable to complain about. But electricity? No way, pardner. Circa 1920
Over the past 50 years or so, the phone companies have gone through a phase of cost cutting whereby they simplified their POTS service to a "color code" of wires. By doing so, they reduced the skill level required to do POTS service calls, and thus, the wages required to maintain the service. While in the short term, this lowered their costs, it has left them without the workforce required to implement new technologies effectively.
I am not a lawyer. This post does not constitute any form of legal advice.
Yes it is full internet access (well they are blocking outbound Kazaa now, but that's not important). They are actually our competitors but they are a public utility who ran Telescrips cable out of the market by killing them on price/chanels/service. The cable modems came along as a result of the need to monitor electric usage (wired meters) they had a fiber loop around the city and decided to backhaul inet access on it. They turn a healthy profit as well, both on cable modem and tv service.
09f911029d74e35bd84156c5635688c0
No kidding!
The remaining venue of competition is the Wireless ISP market (wISP). wISPs can deliver broadband last-mile connections using point-to-multipoint connections and new APs are coming out that make it trivial to set up the customer premises equipment. wISP can install faster than wireline providers like cable and DSL, because they often don't even need to visit the customer, the APs can be placed in a window or the like. The available bandwidth is dramatically faster than even current broadband offerings.
VoIP is better than traditional telecomm because it can run over any internet connection, bringing comptetion for telephony from the cablemodem providers, for example. Also, it uses less available bandwidth than traditional phone comm (people are running reasonable connections at 12Kbps these days) and the technology is good enough today to work without gaps and delays.
Obviously the wISPs will be offering Voice over IP service to their customers. It's a killer app, as the customer can do all of their data and telecomm through the wISP and cut the cables completely. If the Bells succeed in taxing VoIP it may not only stall VoIP generally, but might potentially also take away a substantial business model from the wISPs.
home page
Listen, SBC, the reason I use Speakeasy and not you guys for my internet is because you have crappy customer service. Either improve your CS or pick up your marbles and go home. Same goes for Verizon - ESPECIALLY Verizon - who has all the technical greatness of GTE and all the crappy service of Bell Atlantic.
And if you don't give me an option, I'll move off again.
This sig no verb.
but the only real competitor (on a grand scale, wifi is still too small) to the baby bells wrt internet connectivity are the cable companies. They could swoop in and make a fucking killing but they appear to be disorganized and generally unenthusiastic about the prospect. Comcast (in my area) has a "Business Cable" deal that gives you 1.5/512 (or something like that) with a couple of static IP's for $99 a month and that includes the modem. As an added bonus, once you get things ready, they install it in about 2 days. This is in contrast to Verizon whom it usually takes 30-45 days to get their shit together. The only problem is that you have to bombard Comcast with a steady stream of phone calls to get their ass in gear to get the installation pricing together. I've always thought that if they would allow me to sell it, I could do a land-office business in it....
What the hell did that comittee think? That they'd wave thier magic wand and the baby bells would suddenly turn into good little boys and girls? Were these guys drug tested before they ruled on this?
The simple fact of the matter is that the bells proved the smarter of the two sides here. There are numerous agreements dating back to the early part of the 1900s between phone companies and the government, but most of these were good faith actions, surprisingly, at least on the part of the government. When faced with the dilemna of providing stable, reliable communications for the new century across the country, the government realized that private companies would not only be best suited for this, but they would also willingly support the absolutely enormous initial investment, as long as they were allowed to play by different rules than other industries.
Due to this, so called baby bells have had a virtual monopoly ever since. And they're not stupid. Phone companies are some of the most intelligently planned companies in the world, at least as far as long term strategy is concerned.
When they realized how much capital was to be gained, my local bell, Bellsouth, aggresively entered into long distance, after first spearheading the charge to get legislation passed that would let them play the long distance game with the other kids. And now, I'm employed in the sales department of their cellular branch, Cingular, which is one of their smarter moves to date.
Simply put, more and more people are doing what I do, and using my cell phone as my home phone. Rather than pay two bills, one for a landline and the other for the cell, I just enjoy the benefit of having my home phone with me at all times. Also, much like the earlier incarnations of the phone companies, cellular companies have massive agreements in place where they all use each others towers and relay points, and aggressively discourage, through lobbying and downright ugly business practices, the entry into the market of any new, radical companyies.
For example, take Cricket. Cricket allows unlimited local calls in your home service area, with an aggressive long distance plan. Only one problem: once outside your home footprint, Cricket no longer works, because it cannot receive a signal. This is because the larger cellular companies have unsigned agreements in place that prevent the sharing of resources, like signal towers and receivers, to anyone who is not already in the game. Competition? Ha!!
So, faced with the threat of their precious landlines and preferential zoning laws and permits being rendered obsolete by cellular technology, they simply all rushed in, then closed the doors, thus maintaining survivability, as well as the status quo.
The Government never stood a chance, they've been either outflanked or happily prison-raped by the phone companies at every turn.
Mod Points: Helping you keep your opinion to yourself.
First, the problem with the Bells is greed. There have been numerous posts here over the last several years about the Bells' behvior. They have had better than 5 years to prepare for DSL. Many Bells still choose to buy and install non-DSL equipment while the customers are begging for DSL!
True, the line sharing cuts into profits, but almost every Bell has spent millions trying to wipe out the cell-phone industry, a plan that is blatant misapproperation of funds an order of magnitude bigger than DSL! Also, they have tried getting into everything electronic except providing better phone lines.
The phone companies want what the Cable Co has--complete power over connection and content! That power was taken for a reason and the FCC seems to forget why. Look at AT&T. They are a telco-they have no business in content, let alone cable! I still will maintain that the FCC should let the Bells buy up the Cable Co....and then hold them to the common-carrier class and forbid media-houses from controlling them. Remember the cable guys are double speaking too. Each town's cable is a seperate company on the books--the big owners use that "poor little guy" image to get relaxed laws (much like the entertainment industry)
The game isn't about profit--it's about control, total absolute control, pure and simple! It's about creating monopolies while distracting Govt. and then hiding behind the investors and "property" rights at every pointed finger. The worst part is that investors belive this stuff! These companies business plans are to create monopoly and investors are paying big bucks for essentially a mail-order racket. Now that the market is down, everyone is using the fake stock prices as leverage over the Govt to get what they want.
The consumer is just a pawn!