A lot has been said about the supposed alternatives available to consumers for getting broadband Internet access.
Which of course is all a bunch of hooey. There’s a monopoly on high speed Internet access for consumers and the folks holding that monopoly know it.
In spite of all evidence to the contrary (and then some), Comcast insists [PDF] that “the broadband marketplace is more competitive than ever.”
Hippy, dippy, BALONEY. If there was ever a BETTER example of this – including detailed accounts of how bad un regulated service is amongst the supposed “choices” that consumers have, it’s this article:
- New Homeowner Has To Sell House Because Of Comcast’s Incompetence, Lack Of Competition
http://consumerist.com/2015/03/25/new-homeowner-has-to-sell-house-because-of-comcasts-incompetence-lack-of-competition/
I can tell you that I theoretically have 4 “choices”:
- Verizon-line DSL (capped at 6Mbps)
No growth beyond 6Mbps. Ever. Meanwhile the rest of the industry is hitting 300Mbps to 1Gbps speeds. This is a dead technology and the only step beyond this for telecom companies is “fiber” which is not available in most of Los Angeles. - HugheNet Satellite (1sec latency, capped at 20GB)
Besides being pricey, the latency of HughesNet and other satellite based Internet services makes it infeasible for random access streaming video, audio, real-time communications or telephony/VOIP. Worse yet, it’s consumption capped at 10-20GB/month. - Cellular (2-25Mbps, capped at 5GB)
Extremely expensive at $50/mo for 5GB/mo, highly variable speeds (I can barely get 2Mb through Verizon XLTE in my location) and capped on consumption to 5Gb per month. - Time Warner (15Mbps-300Mbps)
This is what I chose since it’s the only feasible choice. My issue is that service is irregular. Sometimes I get 15Mbps and other times I get 70Mbps. Sometimes in the middle of the day, the connection is DEAD and no amount of calling to Time Warner seems to help.
This is what I mean by NO CHOICE. If I ever can’t stand it any more with Time Warner’s questionable service, I can never switch. None of the other service alternatives are in the same realm.
There is no choice.
kurtsh
Kurt's Thoughts 