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Verizon CEO Calls Municipal Wi-Fi 'a Dumb Idea'
ozone writes "
An interview with Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg quotes him as saying that 'Municipal Wi-Fi is one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard' and 'Why in the world would you think your (cell) phone would work in your house?' -- apparently Verizon's own 'Can You Hear Me Now' ad campaign has given customers 'unrealistic expectations' that their phone service will work everywhere. What?"
It also works in tunnels (which surprised me).
They're even extending service into the subway.
When a CEO bitches like that, he's just scared of competition.
I disagree. I think it is a great idea. Here in Holland there are a few great initiatives based on wifi to bring wireless internet to the masses. And these initiatives were not set-up by big companies but by individuals. Ok, I have to tell you that these projects were started in the city and not in a rural area. But we do not have many of those over here in holland. But they were able to built a wireless network for one city-district called lombok (www.lombox.nl) with only one antenna on the church tower. And rural areas mostly have a church in the center. So in my opinion municipal internet is a good idea. Gives you a nice position in the communitie. The towns netman.
I have a feeling that his statement will somebody become a famous quote, like these:
There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home.
Ken Olsen, President, Digital Equipment, 1977
For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three.
Alice Kahn
Technology is dominated by two types of people: those who understand what they do not manage, and those who manage what they do not understand.
Putt's Law
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled.
Richard Feynman
Vintage computer adverts: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/computers-and-software-ads
OTOH, if you want GSM in Ottawa, you're stuck with Rogers "bend over and this won't hurt much" AT&T.
No thanks. You couldn't pay me enough to put up with their crap again. Between a cell phone that got jacked, a couple of customer "service" people who didn't believe that I hadn't been making long distance calls from Vancouver to Lebanon, middle management after middle management that couldn't possibly grok the fact that their own records showed concurrent usage from the "same" phone in Ottawa and Vancouver, them taking a year to cancel the service, only to not actually cancel it and send me to collections instead, and a year's worth of fighting with them in small claims court, no thanks. And then they wondered why I cancelled my video rental, TV, and Internet with them. Fuckers still call me to offer me bundles on the service, despite being asked to put me on the do-not-call list repeatedly. Ted Rogers can go to hell.
Service was great when it was Cantel. Then they merged with AT&T. Coverage was still good, but customer service was nonexistant. Then Rogers bought Cantel, and the whole shebang went to shit.
I'll stick with CDMA. The coverage map is less than half the story, and besides, I have much better reception and coverage with Bell than I ever did with Cantel/Rogers/AT&T.
Incidentally... you do realise that it's *far* cheaper to buy a phone and use pay-as-you-go when you're in Europe than it is to bring your phone from home?
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
There is no reason to think that a government body, or quasi-government body like most public utiltiies couldn't set up a good network and do it for less than a company like Verizon.
A lot of it is in hiring the right people. Right now there are large nubmers of very skilled people that are unemployed or underemployed. These people could be snapped up at a good price.
Also, as many developing countries have learned, it's cheaper to invest in modern technology than to maintain and upgrade older networks. A wireless network that uses off-the-shelf modern parts should be much cheaper than a custom network built over a much longer time. Look at all the articles about growth in South Korea and similar places.
A standardized network based on WiFi also would solve Verizon's "customers expect the network to work everywhere" problem because customers could throw up their own antenea on their house. ie It could even reach their basement just fine.
At what price learning? At what cost wisdom? The price is a man's peace of mind, and the cost is his life.
heheh. Like the local cable service here saying "what business does the power company have doing cable service?"
:)
Before we got the local (municipally owned) power company's broadband/cable service, the local Comcast affiliate was "waiting on equipment" for broadband rollout (waiting forever almost.) And since SBC (Phht. ACK. Spit on their GRAVES) doesn't roll out DSL city-wide, we were waiting for some competition to spur on the monopolies. (put it in the poorest section, don't get many subscribers, then claim there's no market for it? GREAT IDEA local phone monopoly!).
Once the vote for our power company to do cable/internet service was in, not more than a week later, broadband was suddenly available from Comcast "city-wide." Uh huh. Must've been waiting for the universal remote to control the broadband or something, and it came in via UPS in the nick of time.
Imagine if we had voted no?
It's the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man.
San Francisco wants to perform a public service, and Verizon is only pissed because they lost an opportunity to grab a buck. These greedy businessmen would charge us for the air we breathe if they could get away with it. They are nothing but bloodsuckers.
How ya like dat?
Re-hashing a 1992 usenet post from alt.folklore.urban:
"I, too, have heard the story about an architect who planted grass instead of laying sidewalks, let people walk where they would, and retrofitted sidewalks over the ruts in the lawn."
What do you think this could imply if we make relevant analogies; pure chaos?
And slashdoters are backing these creeps up. It's shocking really, the amount of corporate-monopoly cheerleading you see on slashdot these days. I can't help but wonder if posts like the grandparents are done by "public relations" for company X and then the lackies run around modding it up.
Any blind idiot can see that Verizon dude is just scared of competition, consumer choice, and being forced into a business model that takes care of customer needs, not his. But you pegged the attitude perfectly -- "pay us, fuck you".
What changed under Obama? Nothing Good