I play it on the ps3 though, and while I really want to scream cheater at some of those 12 to 15 years old bragging about killing everyone, as far as I know, there are no real widespread cheats for the console...
The difference I guess is at the end of a game.. where I just got my ass handed to me, I am a gracious loser, but I love to point out to the winners that while I did lose, I accept the fact and move on, they are however douchebag winners...
Although I have been getting better lately, with some of the perks.. and a tactical knife.. I annoy the crap out them:)
Is that while it currently is no threat, they are preparing for the future. Whether or not the threat actually does arise or not is irrelevant, as MS has the money to throw at this minor inconvenience, to attempt to stop it before it becomes a major threat.
The whole visual voicemail thing is a back end service, not a phone provided one. So for Tmobile to support it, they would have to install the infrastructure.
Other then that, any GSM phone with the correct frequency bands will work on ATT or Tmo, including full data, voice and text.
Weird, bunch of replies that have been successful, I am always nice and courteous (hell I did ISP tech support at the beginning of my career, I know what it is like on the other end of the phone), yet I get cited company policy in the few times I tried. once was with the tilt2 (I ended up unlocking it and cooking my own rom so that became a non issue), and of course then there is the iphone, which I would have preferred to get unlocked legitimately, if that is even possible, but I jailbroke and unlocked it anyways, I used it when I went to South Africa in Mar, worked perfectly.
That would be all fine and dandy, except that if you go read the FCC reports on this device, the frequency bands are for Tmobile 3G, it will work on ATT's edge network, but not the 3G network.. for a purely data device, this makes no sense.
No, they sold out every phone they had at both the Apple and ATT stores at the $600 price point.. those people get really pissed when Apple dropped the price a few months later, and then even more so when the 3G came out at a seriously cheap (compared to the original 2G) price point..
So I would not call it a failure.. however the fact that ATT's network cannot handle the traffic (Voice or Data), is a colossal failure.
It's called LTE.. I did not mention it earlier because the current documents going through the FCC (head on over the engadget, they have a breakdown of the FCC documents), currently show that the frequency bands in use for this phone make it a Tmobile specific device (does not have the 850 or 1900 bands for ATT 3g)
LTE however, atleast in it's base specs, is backwards compatible with GSM/UMTS/HSPA/CDMA and a dozen over specs.
If google was to release an LTE phone, I doubt they would fiddle with those, Verizon on the other hand, would probably gimp the LTE specs to the point where they would be useless on any other network (completely defeating the point of all that compatibility to nickel and dime you to death)
I'm not sure what you are getting at, by rates you mean to the cost of the phone, or the cost of the carriers service.
If its the latter, it makes no difference, I pay the same for my minutes, text messages and data regardless of whether or not I bought my phone from ATT (I do have an iphone currently), or I bring my own phone to the table (which I did prior to the iphone, most of the phones I had prior were after market unlocked and $500 to $900 devices)..
Also note that those unlocked phones that you are talking about, in the US, are all pricey, walk into Best Buy and look at their selection of unlocked phones (mostly samsung and nokia).. they are $300 and up (atleast at the glance I saw last night as I walked over to the PS3 isle).
I am not sure what their motivation is, but its google, they can afford to take a loss (atleast in the beginning), so there may be no need to subsidize the phone if they price it very cheap, take a loss, but start the carrier anarchy ball rolling with cheap non subsidized non carrier purchased devices.
Only in the US is the Droid a CDMA phone (see my previous comment further up about the Droid name.. it annoys me). The phone is however available in Europe in a GSM variant known as the Motorola Sholes/Milestone. The currently frequency bands though means it is relegated to edge speeds in the US as neither ATT nor Tmobile use the 900/2100 for 3g (UMTS/HSPA) that the phone has.
However if you go peruse the canadian motorola site, the Canadian version of the Sholes/Milestone uses 850/1900 for 3g, which is what ATT uses.... but its not available yet:(
Tmobile gets screwed either way as they use 1700 for 3G.. so unless the phone was made specifically for Tmo US, you will not get 3G speeds.
I think it has less to do with reinventing the devices, or more about reinventing the US business model of cell phone sales.
In most of the world.. basically everywhere but the US, people buy their phones, and then pick their carrier, they pay more up front (although some carriers to subsidize their phones in the rest of the world) for the devices.
That is where Google is most likely heading, we sell you the phone, you do whatever the hell you want with it, its not carrier locked, pick tmobile, pick ATT (and if they come out with a CDMA variant, hell pick sprint of verizon, although this is unlikely as most of the world uses GSM/UMTS/HSPA networks, very few use CDMA, so its a bigger market and makes sense that the Google phone will be GSM based initially), and have it it.
I am sure this will worry the carriers as they lose control over the functioning of the phone, I do not believe they care about profits from devices, and they sell those at a loss anyway and make up for it in over priced over inflated services.
disclaimer: I despise verizon with a passion, and I also hate ETF's..
BUT.. I do not really see an issue with verizon upping the ETF on certain phones. Lets look at your droid for example (other then the fact that Verizon chose to brand it in such a way as to confuse people who do not know the difference between the android OS from google which runs on multiple phones, and is not a particular phone for verizon, my wife, who is somewhat technically savvy got caught in this particular branding trap).
If you buy the GSM version of the Droid, called the Sholes/Milestone unlocked at retail, it runs around $600 to $900 depending on where you buy it. Assuming bulk purchasing that carriers have, they probably get the phone for around $300 to $500 (total guess on my part). Unlocked non subsidized phones are expensive, even cheap freebies you get on contract can run $200 to $300 unlocked and non subsidized.
They are subsidizing the cost of the phone early and make up the difference and profit in service, but if you cancel early, they have the potential to take a large loss on the device, hence the ETF, so in the Droids case, $350 ETF may or may not make up the amount they are subsidizing, since you only paid $199 up front, or less in some places (I vaguely remember seeing the Droid for $99, at some point).
Now the bigger issue I have is with ATT, who while also subsidizes the phones, absolutely refuses to provide the unlock code to remove the simlock in place on their phones, even after you have completed your 2 year contractual obligation.. so if I want to switch to tmobile, I have to buy a new phone, that is absolutely bogus, and needs to be fixed, granted I have unlocked every phone I have every had, and for the most part I pay more for some unlocked devices, but thats not th epoint.
No, in fact it does absolutely nothing for me, because my wireless router is function as a straight access point, providing no services other then bridging the wireless to wired network, DHCP, DNS and routing all come from my various openbsd (gateway/firewall/nat using pf) and freebsd for dhcp and DNS. So enabling upnp on the wireless access point does absolutely nothing.
Is that I have to open a bunch of ports and do port forwarding to my ps3 just to play online... their support forums say to turn on pnp on the wireless router, which is absolute crap, they do not really list the ports being used other then a wide range.. and anyone thats using linux/openbsd/similar firewalls and routers, have to play trial and error on which ports to open without removing all rules and forwarding all ports to the ps3....
I frequently get punted during host migration in the middle of a game.... since my natting is strict (according to their display, even though I opened up some of the ports and relagated the ps3 to an untrusted portion of my network)
The way I read it, is that they are going to put the laws online, free of charge for anyone to view, but till that happens, in the mean time, they are offering it on a CD for $200. While I think that is a high dollar value for a CD and a few minutes of copying, that is their choice. I remember when Solaris first start being offered for free, I still had to pay $30 for the media and shipping. Same thing here, and the reason for the CD is obvious, the laws and codes probably kill off a forest or 2 every time it gets printed.
Have you seen the building codes, hell the electrical codes from the NEC alone can fill up volumes (yes there are abbreviated hand held versions too, that fill up a paperback novel sized book), then there are the plumbing codes, and a bunch of others that make up the complete building codes.
As for the Laws, I imagine that the write up for each law probably takes a few pages. While I agree with you, that we have way too many laws, hell there are still laws on the books from over 200 years ago in some places, and completely retarded in some cases.... But I don't think putting a 10 year expiration date on every law would work, we would have to create an entire new organization who's sole purpose would be to review and revise every law on a constant basis. We have that sort of, the judiciary, but the work load would increase exponentially and is not really feasible, I mean come on here, murder is murder, why expire and renew it every 10 years..
Obviously the murder example is cut and dry, I would agree that maybe lesser offenses, say misdemeanor types should be reviewed more often.
You could have easily appealed that. There is a huge difference between ignorance of the law, and being psychic and knowing they had tried to notify you.
When you sent the ticket in, with your correct address, you met your obligations with regards to that ticket. It is up to the courts and police to notify you at the correct address. No reasonable judge or court system could expect an individual who never received notification, because the courts sent the information to the incorrect address to realize they had a suspended license (or for any other legal matter).
I was also charged with driving on a suspended license in VA, and I made a deal with the prosecutor prior to ever seeing the judge, and I also had no idea that my license was suspended. The difference is, they did notify me at the correct address, however at some point VA stopped using certified mail that require an signature of receipt when sending out suspension notices, and started using normal mail, I just had not gotten around to opening it.
Last I checked, court documents are public, that would include evidence. Obviously some information could be redacted, but that does not make it any less public, just obfuscated. Then again, closed court hearings are different, but I suspect the information could still be made available via FOIA requests.
Possibly, but how many people want to spend between $30 to $100 a month extra on top of their voicebill for data service to use that navigation function. That is were stand alone units excel, and why they won't go away.
What I do see happening is that Garmin and TomTom's value added services that they charge (real time traffic, POI updates and reviews, gas prices, etc etc) for will take a serious hit, and probably turned into free products.
The other thing, I have a Garmin, gets real time over the air updates (from terrestrial broadcasters, clearchannel mostly), and it is faily accurate in the DC area, although sometimes behind time wise (new accidents take about 15 to 30 min to get broadcast). Using data on a congested network may result in even further delays of that type of information, and at the same time, I drive fast, Google maps is not always able to keep up and download the additional map pieces fast enough so I find myself driving in a see of grey nothingness.
Also, I would not call Marine and Aeronautical segments niche markets, which I suspect is actually where the GPS companies make more of the profit then from cheap PNDs
Don't even get me started on the DC Metro system.. it is a disaster..
Typical cost (assuming you park there as well) is around $5 a day to park, and $4ish each way during rush hour for those who live in the suburbs and travel into the city... And they keep jacking up the price every year if not more often. The price hikes would not be so bad if service improved, but prices keep going up, and the service keeps going down.
As for the funding issues, well Metro crosses VA MD and DC.. Getting those three governments to fund anything is a pain because they always argue about who should bear the majority of the costs for anything. And the numbers they throw around are ridiculously high (in the billions usually for example, the purple line to connect the outer stations).
I can get anywhere within NYC on the subway there, in DC, I theres about 80% of the area that does not get metro service, you have to take a metro bus.. and trust me, you dont want to do that.. Unreliable, rarely on time, stink, and they like to occasionally run people over and kill them (3 or 4 incidents this year already).... The subway was designed to move people in and out of the city, not really around inside the city.
Oh, and btw, Verizon does not do any of the cabling of the cities themselves, they contract it out to private companies (who's trucks sometimes have one of those giant magnetic Verizon logo's plastered on the side of their vehicle), they do not even wife it up to the house where the ONT will be, another private contractor does that. Verizon only came out to hook up the ONT, and wire the house if need be for whatever devices you want them to hook up.
How about the fact that Verizon is divesting itself of all of its rural infrastructure, and guess what, I bet 70% or more of those people would love to have FIOS.. DSL.. hell even cable...
Take a look at New England, Verizon sold off its lines there, and now the company is filing for bankruptcy and their service is horrible.
Sure, you will say well those are rural areas and they are not profitable..
How about Fairfax in the Washington DC metro area.. lots of money, monstrously dense population... FIOS is in parts of, but still refuses to wire a significant portion of it (I suspect that has more to do with franchise agreements and what not).
Verizon is not the end all be all, I can almost guarentee that unless a town bends over and takes it up the behind from Verizon, Verizon will still not wire the area, they have no incentive, 70% populace wanting something that costs a significant amount to install and will run at a loss for a long time, is still a loss and no incentive at all. Currently the only place Verizon is actually persuing, agressively, FIOS installations, is where they compete with other large providers, and even then, there is price collusion since prices are not going down in any way, and never have. I am fortunate to live in the area where FIOS was first being tested in the US long before actual deployment, otherwise I doubt I would have it.
Outside of large metro areas where we might be lucky if we have 2 options, most smaller areas are outright monopolies. I personally do not consider DSL broadband anymore, then again I have FIOS:)....
I believe that the municipalities should put in the backbone connecting all the housing and business infrastructures of an area with their choice of networking, then lease that to the telcos and ISPs, that way, anyone who wants entry into the market just has to provide the infrastructure up to the municipal peering locations.
That would provide competition.. and easier entry for non incumbents...
However, I suspect thats just the initial reaction to the press release by Google.
While the navigation might be great, I do not think it will be able to compete at this point in time with stand alone devices. Google navigation will still require network connectivity, and while most places have it, some do not, also, google maps on my iphone and windows mobile phones was so slow (HTC Tytn II) sometimes it said to turn right after I passed the street (for that matter the TomTom software on the winmo phone did the same thing depending on my speed.
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Who gives a crap what anyone else thinks...
I play it on the ps3 though, and while I really want to scream cheater at some of those 12 to 15 years old bragging about killing everyone, as far as I know, there are no real widespread cheats for the console...
The difference I guess is at the end of a game.. where I just got my ass handed to me, I am a gracious loser, but I love to point out to the winners that while I did lose, I accept the fact and move on, they are however douchebag winners...
Although I have been getting better lately, with some of the perks.. and a tactical knife.. I annoy the crap out them :)
Is that while it currently is no threat, they are preparing for the future. Whether or not the threat actually does arise or not is irrelevant, as MS has the money to throw at this minor inconvenience, to attempt to stop it before it becomes a major threat.
The whole visual voicemail thing is a back end service, not a phone provided one. So for Tmobile to support it, they would have to install the infrastructure.
Other then that, any GSM phone with the correct frequency bands will work on ATT or Tmo, including full data, voice and text.
Weird, bunch of replies that have been successful, I am always nice and courteous (hell I did ISP tech support at the beginning of my career, I know what it is like on the other end of the phone), yet I get cited company policy in the few times I tried. once was with the tilt2 (I ended up unlocking it and cooking my own rom so that became a non issue), and of course then there is the iphone, which I would have preferred to get unlocked legitimately, if that is even possible, but I jailbroke and unlocked it anyways, I used it when I went to South Africa in Mar, worked perfectly.
Maybe I am just unlucky with the CSR reps I get.
That would be all fine and dandy, except that if you go read the FCC reports on this device, the frequency bands are for Tmobile 3G, it will work on ATT's edge network, but not the 3G network.. for a purely data device, this makes no sense.
No, they sold out every phone they had at both the Apple and ATT stores at the $600 price point.. those people get really pissed when Apple dropped the price a few months later, and then even more so when the 3G came out at a seriously cheap (compared to the original 2G) price point..
So I would not call it a failure.. however the fact that ATT's network cannot handle the traffic (Voice or Data), is a colossal failure.
It's called LTE.. I did not mention it earlier because the current documents going through the FCC (head on over the engadget, they have a breakdown of the FCC documents), currently show that the frequency bands in use for this phone make it a Tmobile specific device (does not have the 850 or 1900 bands for ATT 3g)
LTE however, atleast in it's base specs, is backwards compatible with GSM/UMTS/HSPA/CDMA and a dozen over specs.
If google was to release an LTE phone, I doubt they would fiddle with those, Verizon on the other hand, would probably gimp the LTE specs to the point where they would be useless on any other network (completely defeating the point of all that compatibility to nickel and dime you to death)
I'm not sure what you are getting at, by rates you mean to the cost of the phone, or the cost of the carriers service.
If its the latter, it makes no difference, I pay the same for my minutes, text messages and data regardless of whether or not I bought my phone from ATT (I do have an iphone currently), or I bring my own phone to the table (which I did prior to the iphone, most of the phones I had prior were after market unlocked and $500 to $900 devices)..
Also note that those unlocked phones that you are talking about, in the US, are all pricey, walk into Best Buy and look at their selection of unlocked phones (mostly samsung and nokia).. they are $300 and up (atleast at the glance I saw last night as I walked over to the PS3 isle).
I am not sure what their motivation is, but its google, they can afford to take a loss (atleast in the beginning), so there may be no need to subsidize the phone if they price it very cheap, take a loss, but start the carrier anarchy ball rolling with cheap non subsidized non carrier purchased devices.
Only in the US is the Droid a CDMA phone (see my previous comment further up about the Droid name.. it annoys me). The phone is however available in Europe in a GSM variant known as the Motorola Sholes/Milestone. The currently frequency bands though means it is relegated to edge speeds in the US as neither ATT nor Tmobile use the 900/2100 for 3g (UMTS/HSPA) that the phone has.
However if you go peruse the canadian motorola site, the Canadian version of the Sholes/Milestone uses 850/1900 for 3g, which is what ATT uses.... but its not available yet :(
Tmobile gets screwed either way as they use 1700 for 3G.. so unless the phone was made specifically for Tmo US, you will not get 3G speeds.
I think it has less to do with reinventing the devices, or more about reinventing the US business model of cell phone sales.
In most of the world.. basically everywhere but the US, people buy their phones, and then pick their carrier, they pay more up front (although some carriers to subsidize their phones in the rest of the world) for the devices.
That is where Google is most likely heading, we sell you the phone, you do whatever the hell you want with it, its not carrier locked, pick tmobile, pick ATT (and if they come out with a CDMA variant, hell pick sprint of verizon, although this is unlikely as most of the world uses GSM/UMTS/HSPA networks, very few use CDMA, so its a bigger market and makes sense that the Google phone will be GSM based initially), and have it it.
I am sure this will worry the carriers as they lose control over the functioning of the phone, I do not believe they care about profits from devices, and they sell those at a loss anyway and make up for it in over priced over inflated services.
disclaimer: I despise verizon with a passion, and I also hate ETF's..
BUT.. I do not really see an issue with verizon upping the ETF on certain phones. Lets look at your droid for example (other then the fact that Verizon chose to brand it in such a way as to confuse people who do not know the difference between the android OS from google which runs on multiple phones, and is not a particular phone for verizon, my wife, who is somewhat technically savvy got caught in this particular branding trap).
If you buy the GSM version of the Droid, called the Sholes/Milestone unlocked at retail, it runs around $600 to $900 depending on where you buy it. Assuming bulk purchasing that carriers have, they probably get the phone for around $300 to $500 (total guess on my part). Unlocked non subsidized phones are expensive, even cheap freebies you get on contract can run $200 to $300 unlocked and non subsidized.
They are subsidizing the cost of the phone early and make up the difference and profit in service, but if you cancel early, they have the potential to take a large loss on the device, hence the ETF, so in the Droids case, $350 ETF may or may not make up the amount they are subsidizing, since you only paid $199 up front, or less in some places (I vaguely remember seeing the Droid for $99, at some point).
Now the bigger issue I have is with ATT, who while also subsidizes the phones, absolutely refuses to provide the unlock code to remove the simlock in place on their phones, even after you have completed your 2 year contractual obligation.. so if I want to switch to tmobile, I have to buy a new phone, that is absolutely bogus, and needs to be fixed, granted I have unlocked every phone I have every had, and for the most part I pay more for some unlocked devices, but thats not th epoint.
No, in fact it does absolutely nothing for me, because my wireless router is function as a straight access point, providing no services other then bridging the wireless to wired network, DHCP, DNS and routing all come from my various openbsd (gateway/firewall/nat using pf) and freebsd for dhcp and DNS. So enabling upnp on the wireless access point does absolutely nothing.
Is that I have to open a bunch of ports and do port forwarding to my ps3 just to play online... their support forums say to turn on pnp on the wireless router, which is absolute crap, they do not really list the ports being used other then a wide range.. and anyone thats using linux/openbsd/similar firewalls and routers, have to play trial and error on which ports to open without removing all rules and forwarding all ports to the ps3....
I frequently get punted during host migration in the middle of a game.... since my natting is strict (according to their display, even though I opened up some of the ports and relagated the ps3 to an untrusted portion of my network)
The way I read it, is that they are going to put the laws online, free of charge for anyone to view, but till that happens, in the mean time, they are offering it on a CD for $200. While I think that is a high dollar value for a CD and a few minutes of copying, that is their choice. I remember when Solaris first start being offered for free, I still had to pay $30 for the media and shipping. Same thing here, and the reason for the CD is obvious, the laws and codes probably kill off a forest or 2 every time it gets printed.
Have you seen the building codes, hell the electrical codes from the NEC alone can fill up volumes (yes there are abbreviated hand held versions too, that fill up a paperback novel sized book), then there are the plumbing codes, and a bunch of others that make up the complete building codes.
As for the Laws, I imagine that the write up for each law probably takes a few pages. While I agree with you, that we have way too many laws, hell there are still laws on the books from over 200 years ago in some places, and completely retarded in some cases.... But I don't think putting a 10 year expiration date on every law would work, we would have to create an entire new organization who's sole purpose would be to review and revise every law on a constant basis. We have that sort of, the judiciary, but the work load would increase exponentially and is not really feasible, I mean come on here, murder is murder, why expire and renew it every 10 years..
Obviously the murder example is cut and dry, I would agree that maybe lesser offenses, say misdemeanor types should be reviewed more often.
You could have easily appealed that. There is a huge difference between ignorance of the law, and being psychic and knowing they had tried to notify you.
When you sent the ticket in, with your correct address, you met your obligations with regards to that ticket. It is up to the courts and police to notify you at the correct address. No reasonable judge or court system could expect an individual who never received notification, because the courts sent the information to the incorrect address to realize they had a suspended license (or for any other legal matter).
I was also charged with driving on a suspended license in VA, and I made a deal with the prosecutor prior to ever seeing the judge, and I also had no idea that my license was suspended. The difference is, they did notify me at the correct address, however at some point VA stopped using certified mail that require an signature of receipt when sending out suspension notices, and started using normal mail, I just had not gotten around to opening it.
Last I checked, court documents are public, that would include evidence. Obviously some information could be redacted, but that does not make it any less public, just obfuscated. Then again, closed court hearings are different, but I suspect the information could still be made available via FOIA requests.
Possibly, but how many people want to spend between $30 to $100 a month extra on top of their voicebill for data service to use that navigation function. That is were stand alone units excel, and why they won't go away.
What I do see happening is that Garmin and TomTom's value added services that they charge (real time traffic, POI updates and reviews, gas prices, etc etc) for will take a serious hit, and probably turned into free products.
The other thing, I have a Garmin, gets real time over the air updates (from terrestrial broadcasters, clearchannel mostly), and it is faily accurate in the DC area, although sometimes behind time wise (new accidents take about 15 to 30 min to get broadcast). Using data on a congested network may result in even further delays of that type of information, and at the same time, I drive fast, Google maps is not always able to keep up and download the additional map pieces fast enough so I find myself driving in a see of grey nothingness.
Also, I would not call Marine and Aeronautical segments niche markets, which I suspect is actually where the GPS companies make more of the profit then from cheap PNDs
No, because Aquafina, a Pepsi product, is actually just tap water run through a filter and bottled.. and sold for an exorbitant price..
See the following link http://consumerist.com/5392454/misplaced-letter-costs-pepsico-126-billion-in-bottled-water-lawsuit
Don't even get me started on the DC Metro system.. it is a disaster..
Typical cost (assuming you park there as well) is around $5 a day to park, and $4ish each way during rush hour for those who live in the suburbs and travel into the city... And they keep jacking up the price every year if not more often. The price hikes would not be so bad if service improved, but prices keep going up, and the service keeps going down.
As for the funding issues, well Metro crosses VA MD and DC.. Getting those three governments to fund anything is a pain because they always argue about who should bear the majority of the costs for anything. And the numbers they throw around are ridiculously high (in the billions usually for example, the purple line to connect the outer stations).
I can get anywhere within NYC on the subway there, in DC, I theres about 80% of the area that does not get metro service, you have to take a metro bus.. and trust me, you dont want to do that.. Unreliable, rarely on time, stink, and they like to occasionally run people over and kill them (3 or 4 incidents this year already).... The subway was designed to move people in and out of the city, not really around inside the city.
Oh, and btw, Verizon does not do any of the cabling of the cities themselves, they contract it out to private companies (who's trucks sometimes have one of those giant magnetic Verizon logo's plastered on the side of their vehicle), they do not even wife it up to the house where the ONT will be, another private contractor does that. Verizon only came out to hook up the ONT, and wire the house if need be for whatever devices you want them to hook up.
How about the fact that Verizon is divesting itself of all of its rural infrastructure, and guess what, I bet 70% or more of those people would love to have FIOS.. DSL.. hell even cable...
Take a look at New England, Verizon sold off its lines there, and now the company is filing for bankruptcy and their service is horrible.
Sure, you will say well those are rural areas and they are not profitable..
How about Fairfax in the Washington DC metro area.. lots of money, monstrously dense population... FIOS is in parts of, but still refuses to wire a significant portion of it (I suspect that has more to do with franchise agreements and what not).
Verizon is not the end all be all, I can almost guarentee that unless a town bends over and takes it up the behind from Verizon, Verizon will still not wire the area, they have no incentive, 70% populace wanting something that costs a significant amount to install and will run at a loss for a long time, is still a loss and no incentive at all. Currently the only place Verizon is actually persuing, agressively, FIOS installations, is where they compete with other large providers, and even then, there is price collusion since prices are not going down in any way, and never have. I am fortunate to live in the area where FIOS was first being tested in the US long before actual deployment, otherwise I doubt I would have it.
Easier said then done..
Outside of large metro areas where we might be lucky if we have 2 options, most smaller areas are outright monopolies. I personally do not consider DSL broadband anymore, then again I have FIOS :) ....
I believe that the municipalities should put in the backbone connecting all the housing and business infrastructures of an area with their choice of networking, then lease that to the telcos and ISPs, that way, anyone who wants entry into the market just has to provide the infrastructure up to the municipal peering locations.
That would provide competition.. and easier entry for non incumbents...
Hate replying to my own posts..
But also, Tom Tom and Garmin supposedly released their earnings statement recently, that could also have something to do with the stock price dropping
However, I suspect thats just the initial reaction to the press release by Google.
While the navigation might be great, I do not think it will be able to compete at this point in time with stand alone devices. Google navigation will still require network connectivity, and while most places have it, some do not, also, google maps on my iphone and windows mobile phones was so slow (HTC Tytn II) sometimes it said to turn right after I passed the street (for that matter the TomTom software on the winmo phone did the same thing depending on my speed.
http://www.google.com/finance?chdnp=1&chdd=1&chds=1&chdv=1&chvs=maximized&chdeh=0&chdet=1256760000000&chddm=30&chls=IntervalBasedLine&cmpto=AMS:TOM2;NASDAQ:GOOG&cmptdms=1;0&q=NASDAQ:GRMN&ntsp=0