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The $200 Billion Broadband Rip-Off

Jamie noted that Cringley has a piece about the US Broadband situation. He talks about where we were and where we are: 'not very fast, not very cheap Internet service that is hurting our ability to compete economically with the rest of the world' and about the $200B the phone companies got to make it that way.

3 of 464 comments (clear)

  1. Re:FIRST! by tomhudson · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    [Public Service Announcement]

    Get with the program. The goat guy is so last century. pick a replacement, or submit one - voting takes place in a few weeks.

    Now back on-topic - the lack of decent high-speed broadband is definitely hurting one sector of the economy - the lawyers working for the RIAA / MPAA. With ubiquitous high-speed, they'd have many more grannies to go after. There'd be no more "I don't even HAVE the interweb thingee" defense. The RIAA should sue the providers for harm to their business model. After all, we saw this week that it worked really well for SCO :-0

  2. re: more evidence by Bayoudegradeable · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Now, before you bash, flame, or mod me troll... hear me out. You say we have market failure in the oil sector. People in the US love to bitch and moan about how expensive oil is (really it's gas that gets the bitching). Ever drive in Europe or Japan? Wanna see what expensive gas looks like, try over there. Few will agree, but the truth is... gas ain't expensive enough! For god's sake, we pour gas into frickin leaf blowers and burn it up pushing leaves on to neighbors yards! Gas is so cheap we drive Hummers, SUVs and other gas sucking mammoths farther then ever before. Thanks to rings of suburbs, commutes get longer, meaning we use... MORE GAS! How many people REALLY carpool? Or take mass transit in this country? If gas were too expensive that number would skyrocket... so I say, gas (by way of oil) is too cheap. Watch how many people use "gas" blowers instead of brooms with really expensive gas prices... Per gallon, gas is cheaper than milk... by a long shot. We consume more oil than any other country on the planet because the oil is too affordable. Or, we really are a country of morons that would rather pay higher prices than ride a train, bus or use a broom to sweep...

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  3. Re:FIRST! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Blantly offtopic

    But damn ive gone blind!!! why dear god did i click on that link!!!