Internet horror stories: How ISPs screwed over users
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Internet horror stories: How ISPs screwed over users
1–10 of 76 posts
Re: Internet horror stories: How ISPs screwed over users
#2The more I think about it, the more I want government to step in and nationalise/regulate internet service, like they did with electricity.
Internet access has become commoditized enough that there isn't much innovation in it's distribution, and it is so necessary for modern businesses that it makes economic sense.
Re: Internet horror stories: How ISPs screwed over users
#3In the UK, we have loads of broadband companies who sell service through BT phonelines. (catch: you have to pay BT for line rental, which at £13/month isn't too bad, and you do get a phone number for that.) This acts very much like the "municipal fiber network" proposed in the article - all your customer service is with who you pay your bill to, and they set your download limits and any throttling (and there are more expensive options[1] that offer larger, well-defined limits and promise not to throttle.)
Fibre connections seem to be either BT or Virgin running their own (separate) infrastructure all over the place, and you can get cable broadband if you actually want cable TV.
Personally I've stuck with ADSL2+ since, in London, that's good enough. When I move out next year, we'll see which hardware can get me the best speeds.
[1] http://idnet.net
Re: Internet horror stories: How ISPs screwed over users
#4If you want competition, stop letting local governments make "deals" with the ISP's to bring such and such Internet or service to that area. Almost always that ensures the company will get a monopoly in that area.
It's precisely for this reason why I'm against states making deals with ISP's even if it means bringing gigabit fiber to their areas. Will it still be fast enough 10-15 years later? Because you can bet they aren't going to upgrade it anymore after they get their local monopoly. I'm sure 1-10 Mbps seemed super-fast 10 years ago, too, when they made the first deals from which they got their current monopolies.
Re: Internet horror stories: How ISPs screwed over users
#5Funny how efficient electric service is now in Texas. There is one outfit that installs and maintains the lines, and dozens of competing service companies that just handle billing (and oddly enough all use the same third party billing software). Compare that with the ISP situation where each town has a cable company and a phone company and that's it. Except where an older phone company had a presence years ago where those lucky folks can also get FIOS as an option. My town, the 50th largest city in the US, has TWC and AT&T and no FIOS. So I have an option of Dumb or Dumber.
The laws in this country to allow monopolies are a joke, but both political parties could care less.
Re: Internet horror stories: How ISPs screwed over users
#6The more I think about it, the more I want government to step in and nationalise/regulate internet service, like they did with electricity. Internet access has become commoditized enough that there isn't much innovation in it's distribution, and it is so necessary for modern businesses that it makes economic sense.
I could not agree more for this specific case. Really wish Internet was just another utility that we paid for and not worry about the monopoly these ISPs have specially in some remote areas.
Re: Internet horror stories: How ISPs screwed over users
#7If you want competition, stop letting local governments make "deals" with the ISP's to bring such and such Internet or service to that area. Almost always that ensures the company will get a monopoly in that area. It's precisely for this reason why I'm against states making deals with ISP's even if it means bringing gigabit fiber to their areas. Will it still be fast enough 10-15 years later? Because you can bet they…
In addition to the predictable obsolescence you cite, a problem with making deals with USA telcos is that they seldom stick to the terms of those deals. Even if some stick-in-the-mud with an excess of conscience won't play ball at the local or state level, they can always overrule that with the commissioners they've bought at the next higher level.
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2007/pulpit_20070810_0026...
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bruce-kushnick/billions-in-cus...
Re: Internet horror stories: How ISPs screwed over users
#8We have a lot of competing ISPs here in Lithuania. Just for comparison, I pay <15$ for 100mbps connection and in the 10 years I had maybe one or two outages that were fixed within few hours.
Re: Internet horror stories: How ISPs screwed over users
#9In the UK, we have loads of broadband companies who sell service through BT phonelines. (catch: you have to pay BT for line rental, which at £13/month isn't too bad, and you do get a phone number for that.) This acts very much like the "municipal fiber network" proposed in the article - all your customer service is with who you pay your bill to, and they set your download limits and any throttling (and there are more…
That was supposed to be how it worked in the US, at least in the late 90s/early 00s - phone (and cable too, I think?) telco network operators were legally obligated to let other ISP companies lease their lines and deliver service to customers. There was no real enforcement though, and network operators just waged guerrilla warfare on independent ISPs - inexplicable "delays" connecting lines for customers that disappeared if the customer got impatient and signed up for the telco instead, service limitations and outages that telco customers on the same lines didn't notice, etc - until most/all of the independent ISPs went bankrupt or gave up.
Re: Internet horror stories: How ISPs screwed over users
#10Makes me think twice about changing my Internet from Earthlink (provided by TWC) to a faster offering from TWC. It works now and I don't think I've ever had an outage in the almost 10 years I've had it in 2 separate houses. Only problem is it's slow as dirt. They advertise 15/3 but I rarely get over 380Kbps upstream which makes working from home all but impossible for me. I'd love to get 30 or 50Mbps down, but I'm afraid of what might happen if I switch...