For those who complained in the past that I forgot to add “None of the Above” – it is there twice just in case you have trifocals like me and missed it the first time.
p>I don’t know if its still going on but they were receiving flack because when people were using Fios for phone service, the installers removed the copper lines… making it extra hard to switch back if you were dissatisfied.
p>It shouldn’t be optional whether or not Comcast and Verizon offer broadband or cable internet — if these businesses want to be allowed to operate in this state, they should be forced into giving everyone the equal opportunity to have broadband. The internet is now as central to our society as running water — and only offering people dailup would be like forcing everyone to the downtown watering well with a bucket and no car. The internet is designed around broadband now — most sites just don’t work with dailup, even if you let the page load for 5-10 minutes per page.
Rather than admit defeat to the pesky local service and go quietly, Time Warner Inc. and Embarq decided to take the fight to the state government, lobbying for several years to get the state government to pass laws to try to destroy the local effort. And sure enough, thanks to a lot of hard work (and money), the cable companies are close to getting their wish — North Carolina’s State Senate have proposed bills to not only effectively crippling or banning the local service, but also to prevent such services from getting funds under the broadband portion of the national Stimulus law.
One of the Time-Warner Cable people actually has some interesting suggestions for how local governments could raise money:
Brad Phillips, vice president of legislative affairs for TWC who lobbies for the North Carolina Cable Association in favor of the bills, tells TechJournal South, “I think this has implications across the entire United States. The larger question is where do you draw the line for local governments to compete with private enterprise.”
Local governments buy gas and diesel fuel for their vehicle fleets, so “What’s to prevent them from competing with gas stations and convenience stores? They have landscaping departments for parks and such, so what would keep them from offering landscaping services?”
Another “economic competition” – and scale.
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p>Other than that, hey you engineers, who wants to educate the economic and technical Luddites?
it’s the absolute bee’s knees.
… copper line?
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p>I don’t know if its still going on but they were receiving flack because when people were using Fios for phone service, the installers removed the copper lines… making it extra hard to switch back if you were dissatisfied.
than use dailup.
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p>It shouldn’t be optional whether or not Comcast and Verizon offer broadband or cable internet — if these businesses want to be allowed to operate in this state, they should be forced into giving everyone the equal opportunity to have broadband. The internet is now as central to our society as running water — and only offering people dailup would be like forcing everyone to the downtown watering well with a bucket and no car. The internet is designed around broadband now — most sites just don’t work with dailup, even if you let the page load for 5-10 minutes per page.
http://www.dailytech.com/artic…
One of the Time-Warner Cable people actually has some interesting suggestions for how local governments could raise money: