The initial build cost of $3 or $6 or $12 million or whatever may be possible, yes, because of the digging and everything else but "the electronics", contrary to what the head honcho states, are actually pretty cheap - an Alcatel VDSL chassis with all the bits certainly won't set you back $150k as stated - my own pricing suggests a mere fraction of that. They're looking at something more like $200/port if the chassis is only half-full, and adding in battery backups and maintenance and everything else still certainly will not be $600/customer/year.
Besides, I doubt that this company is replacing equipment every 5 years: their subscribers are still on 3mbit/s lines. I wouldn't be surprised if they're picking up second-hand equipment, but I am surprised that they don't even seem to have a fiber strategy because that could lower their OPEX rather significantly.
US-English, usually. Sometimes "International English" which may mean there's a Euro symbol on the 5 key or something.
But with 20-something languages - most of which have their own scripture - that seems to be the only reasonable way to maintain any form of standard for typing is to anglicize it first and use an IME... sometimes you can screw it up if you get the wrong anglicized version of a character (for example, typing ch instead of cch may end up getting you the wrong word).
Unlike the Japanese IME where if you're repeating a consonant sound it will just add a small "tsu" to the Hiragana when you do this (prior to converting it to Kanji, assuming the word isn't a loan-word or you're not typing a particle or whatever), the difference can actually mean a completely different character, although I must confess that this isn't limited to the languages of India - I've encountered it in Russian, Kartuli and Arabic as well (I've not bothered to learn typing with direct input on any of the other languages - it would be a nightmare to condition myself to type effectively).
Yes and no - I've been told by GTE>Verizon>Frontier that I have to become a licensed CLEC (which means FCC) to attach to their poles, whereas Ameren Illinois just has a few requirements like decent insurance and about $500 per year for access to some portal (plus $9 per pole per year plus $90-something for pole loading surveys when I want to attach)... to me it's more about paperwork and bureaucracy than [financial] overhead.
And I'm only doing it that way because the city will only grant me permits to cross ROW if I say I'm going to attach to the pole, even though in most cases I really just want to go building to building (for example, apartment complexes that have buildings on both sides of the road).
Couldn't/shouldn't the entertainment industry pay for a license or have to give attribute to the code as if they were actually using it?
Especially in the case of the WHD movie, the code appears to be pretty much lifted directly, so one would imagine that under most licenses some compensation should be due to the original author (assuming they can be found, which may or may not be a trivial task) unless the author specifically states otherwise.
If nothing else, they'd expect it if the tables were turned (and they'd probably sue you in to oblivion if you took some code they'd produced and failed to pay for or attribute it) - especially since the code is being used for commercial purposes (I think a big budget movie counts), in the same way that one is supposed to take a license and/or permission for photos and videos when used for commercial purposes.
I'm not necessarily talking about making the author a gazillionaire, just something reasonable - or is this too crazy a thought (considering this is Slashdot)?
Then again, they seem to double-dip everywhere: at 10 to 100mbit levels the pricing is apparently somewhat reasonable but over and above 100mbit/s the price per mbit/s goes up (!!), and in both cases I have to pay once for the port commitment and once again for the access.
I got a quote the other day for fiber connections at 4 different locations in KS, MO and MI (these are all 100k+ cities, not the middle of nowhere), but all of which just *happen* to have AT&T as the LEC, and the price at each location worked out to $31/mbit all inclusive (Verizon wanted $39/mbit). By contrast, the CLEC in Southern IL charges me about $10/mbit - inclusive of pretty much everything except tax. And they gave me free installation at 2 locations (and had to install conduit at both), whereas AT&T wants me to confirm that there is existing conduit at all locations otherwise they simply won't bother....I'd be *very* interested in any company that could offer me a similar deal to the aforementioned CLEC.
Yes, I will grant that their site is based on the information from healthcare.gov but surely since that information already seems to be available and working for the most part, the government could ditch that portal and hire them to flesh out what they've already done (connect to the IRS/DHS/etc databases) and create something that actually works? Or would that just be too easy/logical?
I was surprised that I had to read so far down to see Ubiquiti mentioned.
I've just purchased 11 devices and instead of buying the NVR I spent about the same amount of money on a quad-core SFF PC from TigerDirect and installed Linux Mint on it. Version 2 of the software has a lot of, if not all of the features that seem to be in Zoneminder etc and although the cameras are in plastic cases, the specs on the devices themselves aren't half bad considering the price.
Apart from the software being java-based and I've read that the CPU load can be a bit high (although I'm not seeing that on my install). I'm currently monitoring 2 locations about 1.5km apart and for the purpose of acting as a deterrent, the system does what it says on the tin, and I could add more cameras pretty easily (the plan - eventually - is to have about 60 cameras at 6 locations in 4 states).
Whatever happened to the "security checked" tape that they used to wrap around the suitcase to show that it wasn't opened in transit? Couldn't they inspect the case & seal it with the tape on the spot so that you'd be reasonably confident that the contents weren't tampered with in between?
I think the same is true at several European airports - they have special sections of the airport dedicated just for US-bound passengers. I went through Istanbul and Amsterdam a few times last year and both seemed to have these, although I'm not certain if they're exactly the same implementations as you're referring to or not.
Wait, aren't the religions tax-exempt in the USA? If so, what rights should they be extended and why? If they want rights and/or to be able to have their say in government, they should pay taxes like the rest of us - pay to play, so to speak.
The same goes for multinational corporations and other such entities.
Addendum: if we use a loosely comparative situation: I'm reasonably certain that the Jews aren't allowed to eat pork for religious reasons, yet, I've not heard them attempting to make bacon illegal or otherwise difficult or expensive to obtain in the US.
You must live in Michigan - I was up there for a week over Christmas with the in-laws and even lucky enough to have power (and a generator if it went out) - but then, they live in the sticks so they're always prepared. I seem to recall seeing trucks out and about even in rural areas, and I think they (UPS & Fedex) did a far better job at delivering their service than the power companies did/are doing!
And even when Illinois/Missouri/Kentucky/etc had that "once in a few years weather event" earlier this month, my deliveries (both FedEx and UPS) all arrived on time - sometimes on the afternoon truck rather than the morning one but, I'm hardly going to complain about a 4 hour difference - and I had packages coming in from both sides of the country, mostly on 2 or 3 day delivery. A couple of times, packages have even arrived earlier than anticipated.
Those are the theoretical limits, but in reality, no. We usually estimate about 50% of the advertised distances to be more realistic. Both in India and with our new unit in the US.
I dunno, in my experience, a decent percentage of government officials in India are outright c**ts. And some of the laziest people on the face of the earth. The police are horrid, as well.
And I moved to India from Finland. Serves me right, I suppose.
Want to? They do it openly. It's in the license agreement for telecoms. The room & equipment have to be provided at the telco's expense. As well as the A/C, phone lines and other things.
In the US, the "last mile" tends to be "the last 14 miles" People forget that the average country is a fraction of the size of the US, heck, some states are bigger than the majority of other countries.
Basically, the US would bump up against the edges of ALL OF EUROPE if laid over the top.
The comparisons, from the get go, are just plain stupid if they neglect these facts.
Tell me, where in Europe is the access as slow and expensive as the US? There aren't many. I may be oversimplifying it a bit, but the only significant difference between the US and EU is only really a technicality... we call the US a single country whereas we don't say the same about the EU. In reality, the US could be compared to the EU in many ways, with each member state being compared accordingly.
The US has federal laws and policies, just as the EU has EU-wide laws and policies, and each state with the US has it's own laws and policies, just as each country in the EU. Plus, the EU has 20+ languages and in some cases, were formerly enemies. Yet, somehow they've managed decent Broadband continent-wide despite all that.
Locally, there has been huge inroads in fiber penetration into all sorts of places that were data deserts in the last two or three years. Only now, it's one trenching crew for one company, then another from another company, and then a year later, a third.
Municipalities get tired of it, and people get tired of it. Which leads to resistance at the local board and ultimately, a lack of competition.
This you're actually right about - I'm in a reasonably small town in Southern IL right now and there are 7 companies who have laid or are laying underground fiber right now. I wanted to be #8, but was told (if I may paraphrase) it would be a cold day in hell - but they were more than happy to let me do aerial, and according to them, they have no plans to ban aerial cabling anytime soon.
I then came to an agreement with one of the underground operators to purchase access, so, for my customers, while most of the service [will] run on underground plant, the last few-hundred feet are aerial, and, apart from installing street-side cabinets here and there, I only have to get permission from the appropriate company to use the poles.
Your ISP installs equipment in your area. That equipment is VERY expensive. You'd be surprised how much actually.
...if you're paying over $100/port for any equipment, you're being ripped off. I've found DSL tends to be the most expensive equipment on this basis. Cable and OLTs less so.
In fact, your bill is likely heavily subsidized by the government and even other customers via fees and such. Your ISP figures out average usage in your area and then installs the equipment that will provide whatever speed they're trying to sell there. Not everyone uses 100% of their connection 100% of the time. If they did, your bill would be much more expensive. So the equipment that leads to your house CAN support the speed (usually) that you are paying for. And the equipment that feeds the remote in your area can usually support about 60% of users at max capacity.
Mostly true - it is a numbers game.
Now, the problem is that Netflix and services like it concentrate usage at specific times. Not only that but netflix, unlike other content providers, refuses to work with ISPs.
Google, for example has a department in charge of "peering" and when they have a contract with Level3 but plan to move to Sprint or something, they call up the ISPs and let them know in advance. The ISPs can then sign similar peering contracts with Sprint. Netflix is hostile in this area, they just switch... with no notice... and they leave the ISPs in the lurch. There are about 10 major players on the net, and Netflix is one of the biggest. When they just move all of their traffic to another network its equivalent to a stampede of elephants running to one side of your boat. The ISP either has to let customers suffer or sign a hasty contract with another carrier and take a loss on the previous commitment. Google doesn't do that, not even Microsoft does that.
What? They multi-home and work with AWS. If your traffic to Netflix is all of a sudden being routed through another AS, it's more likely that someone is throwing a tantrum like the one with L3 and whatnot a while ago. That doesn't necessarily mean Netflix itself has done anything, it may mean that (for example) L3 has decided to stop carrying Netflix traffic or something along those lines. They may or may not have had warning themselves, and both parties may or may not have had a point.
Anyways, I'm not sure usage based billing is the solution, but like it or not, it IS coming to this country. and yes, I work for an ISP. They are trying to be creative about it, but I doubt it'll come to anything. The easiest solution is to just charge you more. So that's what will happen.
Slashdot Mirror
The initial build cost of $3 or $6 or $12 million or whatever may be possible, yes, because of the digging and everything else but "the electronics", contrary to what the head honcho states, are actually pretty cheap - an Alcatel VDSL chassis with all the bits certainly won't set you back $150k as stated - my own pricing suggests a mere fraction of that. They're looking at something more like $200/port if the chassis is only half-full, and adding in battery backups and maintenance and everything else still certainly will not be $600/customer/year.
Besides, I doubt that this company is replacing equipment every 5 years: their subscribers are still on 3mbit/s lines. I wouldn't be surprised if they're picking up second-hand equipment, but I am surprised that they don't even seem to have a fiber strategy because that could lower their OPEX rather significantly.
US-English, usually. Sometimes "International English" which may mean there's a Euro symbol on the 5 key or something.
But with 20-something languages - most of which have their own scripture - that seems to be the only reasonable way to maintain any form of standard for typing is to anglicize it first and use an IME... sometimes you can screw it up if you get the wrong anglicized version of a character (for example, typing ch instead of cch may end up getting you the wrong word).
Unlike the Japanese IME where if you're repeating a consonant sound it will just add a small "tsu" to the Hiragana when you do this (prior to converting it to Kanji, assuming the word isn't a loan-word or you're not typing a particle or whatever), the difference can actually mean a completely different character, although I must confess that this isn't limited to the languages of India - I've encountered it in Russian, Kartuli and Arabic as well (I've not bothered to learn typing with direct input on any of the other languages - it would be a nightmare to condition myself to type effectively).
Yes and no - I've been told by GTE>Verizon>Frontier that I have to become a licensed CLEC (which means FCC) to attach to their poles, whereas Ameren Illinois just has a few requirements like decent insurance and about $500 per year for access to some portal (plus $9 per pole per year plus $90-something for pole loading surveys when I want to attach)... to me it's more about paperwork and bureaucracy than [financial] overhead.
And I'm only doing it that way because the city will only grant me permits to cross ROW if I say I'm going to attach to the pole, even though in most cases I really just want to go building to building (for example, apartment complexes that have buildings on both sides of the road).
Which state?
Couldn't/shouldn't the entertainment industry pay for a license or have to give attribute to the code as if they were actually using it?
Especially in the case of the WHD movie, the code appears to be pretty much lifted directly, so one would imagine that under most licenses some compensation should be due to the original author (assuming they can be found, which may or may not be a trivial task) unless the author specifically states otherwise.
If nothing else, they'd expect it if the tables were turned (and they'd probably sue you in to oblivion if you took some code they'd produced and failed to pay for or attribute it) - especially since the code is being used for commercial purposes (I think a big budget movie counts), in the same way that one is supposed to take a license and/or permission for photos and videos when used for commercial purposes.
I'm not necessarily talking about making the author a gazillionaire, just something reasonable - or is this too crazy a thought (considering this is Slashdot)?
Yes and no. AT&T, as with most telcos (and most businesses in general), almost certainly gives better deals to people who buy in bulk.
I wish, however, based on their Enterprise fiber pricing, it doesn't seem to be the case. http://news.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=4637571&cid=45933683
There might not be "enough bandwidth" in part because they're advertising OC-48 and OC192 as being fast - http://www.business.att.com/enterprise/Service/network-services/internet-connectivity/managed-internet-service/ - which it would be... if it were the late 90s.
And a backbone of "up to OC768" (although not in any areas that need it) http://www.business.att.com/enterprise/Family/network-services/internet-connectivity/
Then again, they seem to double-dip everywhere: at 10 to 100mbit levels the pricing is apparently somewhat reasonable but over and above 100mbit/s the price per mbit/s goes up (!!), and in both cases I have to pay once for the port commitment and once again for the access.
I got a quote the other day for fiber connections at 4 different locations in KS, MO and MI (these are all 100k+ cities, not the middle of nowhere), but all of which just *happen* to have AT&T as the LEC, and the price at each location worked out to $31/mbit all inclusive (Verizon wanted $39/mbit). By contrast, the CLEC in Southern IL charges me about $10/mbit - inclusive of pretty much everything except tax. And they gave me free installation at 2 locations (and had to install conduit at both), whereas AT&T wants me to confirm that there is existing conduit at all locations otherwise they simply won't bother. ...I'd be *very* interested in any company that could offer me a similar deal to the aforementioned CLEC.
What about that team of like 3 guys who created a working alternative to the healthcare.gov portal? http://science.slashdot.org/story/13/11/12/1339215/how-3-young-coders-built-a-better-portal-to-healthcaregov
Yes, I will grant that their site is based on the information from healthcare.gov but surely since that information already seems to be available and working for the most part, the government could ditch that portal and hire them to flesh out what they've already done (connect to the IRS/DHS/etc databases) and create something that actually works? Or would that just be too easy/logical?
I was surprised that I had to read so far down to see Ubiquiti mentioned.
I've just purchased 11 devices and instead of buying the NVR I spent about the same amount of money on a quad-core SFF PC from TigerDirect and installed Linux Mint on it. Version 2 of the software has a lot of, if not all of the features that seem to be in Zoneminder etc and although the cameras are in plastic cases, the specs on the devices themselves aren't half bad considering the price.
Apart from the software being java-based and I've read that the CPU load can be a bit high (although I'm not seeing that on my install). I'm currently monitoring 2 locations about 1.5km apart and for the purpose of acting as a deterrent, the system does what it says on the tin, and I could add more cameras pretty easily (the plan - eventually - is to have about 60 cameras at 6 locations in 4 states).
Whatever happened to the "security checked" tape that they used to wrap around the suitcase to show that it wasn't opened in transit? Couldn't they inspect the case & seal it with the tape on the spot so that you'd be reasonably confident that the contents weren't tampered with in between?
Out of interest, where are you based? We're getting things started in the midwest right now...
I think the same is true at several European airports - they have special sections of the airport dedicated just for US-bound passengers. I went through Istanbul and Amsterdam a few times last year and both seemed to have these, although I'm not certain if they're exactly the same implementations as you're referring to or not.
Wait, aren't the religions tax-exempt in the USA? If so, what rights should they be extended and why? If they want rights and/or to be able to have their say in government, they should pay taxes like the rest of us - pay to play, so to speak.
The same goes for multinational corporations and other such entities.
Addendum: if we use a loosely comparative situation: I'm reasonably certain that the Jews aren't allowed to eat pork for religious reasons, yet, I've not heard them attempting to make bacon illegal or otherwise difficult or expensive to obtain in the US.
You must live in Michigan - I was up there for a week over Christmas with the in-laws and even lucky enough to have power (and a generator if it went out) - but then, they live in the sticks so they're always prepared. I seem to recall seeing trucks out and about even in rural areas, and I think they (UPS & Fedex) did a far better job at delivering their service than the power companies did/are doing!
And even when Illinois/Missouri/Kentucky/etc had that "once in a few years weather event" earlier this month, my deliveries (both FedEx and UPS) all arrived on time - sometimes on the afternoon truck rather than the morning one but, I'm hardly going to complain about a 4 hour difference - and I had packages coming in from both sides of the country, mostly on 2 or 3 day delivery. A couple of times, packages have even arrived earlier than anticipated.
And they would have got away with it too, if it weren't for that meddling kid.
We only need to respond with 2 words: Citation Needed.
Which state?
Those are the theoretical limits, but in reality, no. We usually estimate about 50% of the advertised distances to be more realistic. Both in India and with our new unit in the US.
Except the New Zealand Bill of Rights - one of the pieces of legislature which would make up our equivalent of a constitution - has a clause much like the 4th Amendment - http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1990/0109/latest/DLM225523.html
This one is also worth a read http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/public/2012/0024/latest/whole.html#DLM2136638
India and Finland have a tax treaty. If the taxes have been paid (whether in Finland or India) on a particular transaction or set of transactions, or profit in one or the other or both countries or several other conditions, and has otherwise been keeping up with it's fiscal responsibilities in that country, Nokia doesn't owe jack to India.
http://law.incometaxindia.gov.in/DIT/File_opener.aspx?fn=http://law.incometaxindia.gov.in/Directtaxlaws/cbdt/dta/A1_Finland.htm
(May be oversimplifying the situation, but that's the gist).
I dunno, in my experience, a decent percentage of government officials in India are outright c**ts. And some of the laziest people on the face of the earth. The police are horrid, as well.
And I moved to India from Finland. Serves me right, I suppose.
Want to? They do it openly. It's in the license agreement for telecoms. The room & equipment have to be provided at the telco's expense. As well as the A/C, phone lines and other things.
Something like truenet.co.nz?
In the US, the "last mile" tends to be "the last 14 miles" People forget that the average country is a fraction of the size of the US, heck, some states are bigger than the majority of other countries.
Basically, the US would bump up against the edges of ALL OF EUROPE if laid over the top.
The comparisons, from the get go, are just plain stupid if they neglect these facts.
Tell me, where in Europe is the access as slow and expensive as the US? There aren't many. I may be oversimplifying it a bit, but the only significant difference between the US and EU is only really a technicality... we call the US a single country whereas we don't say the same about the EU. In reality, the US could be compared to the EU in many ways, with each member state being compared accordingly.
The US has federal laws and policies, just as the EU has EU-wide laws and policies, and each state with the US has it's own laws and policies, just as each country in the EU. Plus, the EU has 20+ languages and in some cases, were formerly enemies. Yet, somehow they've managed decent Broadband continent-wide despite all that.
Locally, there has been huge inroads in fiber penetration into all sorts of places that were data deserts in the last two or three years. Only now, it's one trenching crew for one company, then another from another company, and then a year later, a third.
Municipalities get tired of it, and people get tired of it. Which leads to resistance at the local board and ultimately, a lack of competition.
This you're actually right about - I'm in a reasonably small town in Southern IL right now and there are 7 companies who have laid or are laying underground fiber right now. I wanted to be #8, but was told (if I may paraphrase) it would be a cold day in hell - but they were more than happy to let me do aerial, and according to them, they have no plans to ban aerial cabling anytime soon.
I then came to an agreement with one of the underground operators to purchase access, so, for my customers, while most of the service [will] run on underground plant, the last few-hundred feet are aerial, and, apart from installing street-side cabinets here and there, I only have to get permission from the appropriate company to use the poles.
Your ISP installs equipment in your area. That equipment is VERY expensive. You'd be surprised how much actually.
...if you're paying over $100/port for any equipment, you're being ripped off. I've found DSL tends to be the most expensive equipment on this basis. Cable and OLTs less so.
In fact, your bill is likely heavily subsidized by the government and even other customers via fees and such. Your ISP figures out average usage in your area and then installs the equipment that will provide whatever speed they're trying to sell there. Not everyone uses 100% of their connection 100% of the time. If they did, your bill would be much more expensive. So the equipment that leads to your house CAN support the speed (usually) that you are paying for. And the equipment that feeds the remote in your area can usually support about 60% of users at max capacity.
Mostly true - it is a numbers game.
Now, the problem is that Netflix and services like it concentrate usage at specific times. Not only that but netflix, unlike other content providers, refuses to work with ISPs.
Are you sure? https://signup.netflix.com/openconnect
Google, for example has a department in charge of "peering" and when they have a contract with Level3 but plan to move to Sprint or something, they call up the ISPs and let them know in advance. The ISPs can then sign similar peering contracts with Sprint. Netflix is hostile in this area, they just switch... with no notice... and they leave the ISPs in the lurch. There are about 10 major players on the net, and Netflix is one of the biggest. When they just move all of their traffic to another network its equivalent to a stampede of elephants running to one side of your boat. The ISP either has to let customers suffer or sign a hasty contract with another carrier and take a loss on the previous commitment. Google doesn't do that, not even Microsoft does that.
What? They multi-home and work with AWS. If your traffic to Netflix is all of a sudden being routed through another AS, it's more likely that someone is throwing a tantrum like the one with L3 and whatnot a while ago. That doesn't necessarily mean Netflix itself has done anything, it may mean that (for example) L3 has decided to stop carrying Netflix traffic or something along those lines. They may or may not have had warning themselves, and both parties may or may not have had a point.
Anyways, I'm not sure usage based billing is the solution, but like it or not, it IS coming to this country. and yes, I work for an ISP. They are trying to be creative about it, but I doubt it'll come to anything. The easiest solution is to just charge you more. So that's what will happen.
Which one? Remind me to avoid it.