I'm curious as to how Bell can stay in business with such a price differential between themselves and a competitor.
I think it's a combination of several factors: 1- Many people still have no clue how computers and the internet work. 2- Therefore they don't really shop around and go for the safe bet. 3- Bell is having truly massive publicity campaigns. 4- Bell is also heavily promoting similarly priced offerings, but with much lower value (slow connection, small bandwich cap, etc.), which they obviously don't go out of their way to point out.
Taken together, a lot of people go with Bell simply because they don't know better. And it's how it can stay in business.
And yeah, btw, like I mentionned earlier, at 22$, Bell is making money reselling those lines, which truly show you how absurd DSL prices are in the US!
Before anyone comes in screaming that this isn't how the "free" market is supposed to work, how bad governement intervention is, etc. etc., let me point out the following:
In Canada, the biggest telco, by far, Bell Canada, was for a very long time a state sanctioned monopoly and thus recieved tons of public funds to help build its infrastructure (not unlike the situation in the US). Due to this fact, the CRTC (the Canadian equivalent of the FCC, but usually with a clue), forces Bell to allow access to its lines to competitors, as mentionned in the article.
Results? While the particular company Ars focused on isn't a resounding success (even if it has cool ideas), there's tons of others that are. Example: unlimited, uncapped DSL, which would cost me 45$ with Bell, cost me 28$ with one of its competitors because Bell has to lease them the line for 22$/month (a price point at which they still make a profit, I feel it must be pointed out).
And it's not just competition on prices and service level, it's customer service too. Anyone that had to deal with a telco before, at one point or another, pretty certainly wanted to go on a shooting spree. The company I deal with? Pick up the phone and someone (in Canada!) will answer, straight away, 24h a day... none of that "please press 1-3-2-6... please wait... we're receiving an unusual volume of call... waiting time is 17 minutes... your call is important to us" bullshit.
So, basically, go mandatory line-sharing! Anyone wanna bet that it's never going to happen in the States?;P
I'm thinking of buying an 12" iBook or PowerBook to replace my old computer. Now, there are a few things that bother me physically about them (they're big and heavy (twice as much as my Lifebook P2040), the battery life isn't really good and there's a blasted trackpad instead of a trackpoint)...
BUT! I could overlook all that, because I'd really like a computer that Just Works(TM). I love tweaking things in Linux (I run gentoo to give you an idea), but my life is catching up to me now and I find I don't have the time I used to to play with my computer (without doing anything "productive" done).
Now, I'm asking Apple fans (and detractors too) here: is OS X really *that* great, as I heard? Does it really Just Works(TM)? I'm asking because I've nearly went and bought my new Apple laptop, but then discovered that iTunes doesn't play.ogg files (not without tweaking anyhow). That Appleworks doesn't cut it for me (I need feature that aren't available with it) and since I'm not about to pay a kazillion $ to MS to use Office, I'll have to install OpenOffice. And I could go on... So I'm getting stuff like an.ogg player, OpenOffice, Firefox, etc... which I could all get on Linux (or even Windows). So, tell me, what's so great about OS X? There must be something I'm missing... I'm *this* close to buying an Apple notebook because everyone saying they're great, but I have this nagging doubt that it's not all it's claimed to be.
Right, wrong? I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this one...
I'm a big fan of this kind of game (MOO, Civ, SMAC). I've just tried MOO3, and, at priori, it's fun and everything, but I'm still trying to decide if it's a game or a spreadsheet with a graphical interface... =)
Slashdot Mirror
1- Many people still have no clue how computers and the internet work.
2- Therefore they don't really shop around and go for the safe bet.
3- Bell is having truly massive publicity campaigns.
4- Bell is also heavily promoting similarly priced offerings, but with much lower value (slow connection, small bandwich cap, etc.), which they obviously don't go out of their way to point out.
Taken together, a lot of people go with Bell simply because they don't know better. And it's how it can stay in business.
And yeah, btw, like I mentionned earlier, at 22$, Bell is making money reselling those lines, which truly show you how absurd DSL prices are in the US!
Before anyone comes in screaming that this isn't how the "free" market is supposed to work, how bad governement intervention is, etc. etc., let me point out the following:
In Canada, the biggest telco, by far, Bell Canada, was for a very long time a state sanctioned monopoly and thus recieved tons of public funds to help build its infrastructure (not unlike the situation in the US). Due to this fact, the CRTC (the Canadian equivalent of the FCC, but usually with a clue), forces Bell to allow access to its lines to competitors, as mentionned in the article.
Results? While the particular company Ars focused on isn't a resounding success (even if it has cool ideas), there's tons of others that are. Example: unlimited, uncapped DSL, which would cost me 45$ with Bell, cost me 28$ with one of its competitors because Bell has to lease them the line for 22$/month (a price point at which they still make a profit, I feel it must be pointed out).
And it's not just competition on prices and service level, it's customer service too. Anyone that had to deal with a telco before, at one point or another, pretty certainly wanted to go on a shooting spree. The company I deal with? Pick up the phone and someone (in Canada!) will answer, straight away, 24h a day... none of that "please press 1-3-2-6... please wait... we're receiving an unusual volume of call... waiting time is 17 minutes... your call is important to us" bullshit.
So, basically, go mandatory line-sharing! Anyone wanna bet that it's never going to happen in the States? ;P
Will the engine refuse to start if it can't connect to the internet?
This isn't flamebait, but an honest question.
.ogg files (not without tweaking anyhow). That Appleworks doesn't cut it for me (I need feature that aren't available with it) and since I'm not about to pay a kazillion $ to MS to use Office, I'll have to install OpenOffice. And I could go on... So I'm getting stuff like an .ogg player, OpenOffice, Firefox, etc... which I could all get on Linux (or even Windows). So, tell me, what's so great about OS X? There must be something I'm missing... I'm *this* close to buying an Apple notebook because everyone saying they're great, but I have this nagging doubt that it's not all it's claimed to be.
I'm thinking of buying an 12" iBook or PowerBook to replace my old computer. Now, there are a few things that bother me physically about them (they're big and heavy (twice as much as my Lifebook P2040), the battery life isn't really good and there's a blasted trackpad instead of a trackpoint)...
BUT! I could overlook all that, because I'd really like a computer that Just Works(TM). I love tweaking things in Linux (I run gentoo to give you an idea), but my life is catching up to me now and I find I don't have the time I used to to play with my computer (without doing anything "productive" done).
Now, I'm asking Apple fans (and detractors too) here: is OS X really *that* great, as I heard? Does it really Just Works(TM)? I'm asking because I've nearly went and bought my new Apple laptop, but then discovered that iTunes doesn't play
Right, wrong? I'd really appreciate your thoughts on this one...
(2004 FC 488) Decision rendered on March 31, 2004, IN THE MATTER OF BMG Canada Inc. et al v. Jane Doe et al
0 4.pdf
read it here [in pdf]:
http://www.fct-cf.gc.ca/bulletins/whatsnew/T-292-
I dunno, I thought this was a pretty convincing argument...
I'm a big fan of this kind of game (MOO, Civ, SMAC). I've just tried MOO3, and, at priori, it's fun and everything, but I'm still trying to decide if it's a game or a spreadsheet with a graphical interface... =)