11–20 of 29 posts
Consolidation in this space, in my opinion, is putting the future of the Internet in great jeopardy. I'm not sure exactly where we're heading, but i have a feeling the days of a "free" internet are numbered.
Consolidation in this space, in my opinion, is putting the future of the Internet in great jeopardy. I'm not sure exactly where we're heading, but i have a feeling the days of a "free" internet are numbered.
I do wonder if the cable guys are going to go the way of the telephone landline via mobile. I can already get better speeds on my phone than most cable packages. They just need to increase the amount of traffic I can get and I'd drop the hardline service.
Which they will literally never do. They have no incentive to. The absurdly low caps allow them to consistently charge overage fees/print money.
This isn't any better of an idea than Comcast buying TWC was. It should be stopped for all the same reasons.
I’m a bit conflicted. First, Charter is nowhere near as large as Comcast, so no, it wouldn't create a situation where > 50% of American consumer broadband came through one company. The other thing is, TWC is terribly managed, completely inept. Yes I know everyone hates their local monopoly, but I’ve lived all over the US in the past five years and can say with some authority that TWC is worse. Rumor has it that the r…
There is absolutely 0 chance TWC is worse than Frontier. I've had both, it's not even close.
AT&Ts UVerse VDSL rollout is flawed (the cabinets are generally too far from customers premises), so speeds are too slow. Verizon has given up with further significant FiOS rollout.
I don't really think this matters too much. TWC and Charter serve different areas, so there is no real change in competition. You could argue maybe there is some changes in bids for content, or perhaps peering and transit, but I think the much more important thing is getting a competitor on the ground.
Everywhere Google Fiber has rolled out (or even said they may roll out) has seen huge service improvements from the incumbents. Instead of bickering over these merges, there should be more thought on how to get more Google Fibers out there.
This isn't any better of an idea than Comcast buying TWC was. It should be stopped for all the same reasons.
I’m a bit conflicted. First, Charter is nowhere near as large as Comcast, so no, it wouldn't create a situation where > 50% of American consumer broadband came through one company. The other thing is, TWC is terribly managed, completely inept. Yes I know everyone hates their local monopoly, but I’ve lived all over the US in the past five years and can say with some authority that TWC is worse. Rumor has it that the r…
Charter cable and internet seem pretty solid. Their business phone service has had terrible growing pains over the last year [maybe two years? my memory fails me], with multiple, multiple-hour outages during the middle of business days. Our sales guy told me they've recently decided to implement rolling switch restarts after future emergency outages, instead of trying to restart every switch in their network at once and getting their shoelaces tied together. I told him that sounded like a good idea, so good that perhaps they should have had it from the very beginning.
The real problem is that the telecoms companies (AT&T and Verizon in most areas) aren't putting up any competition at all. AT&Ts UVerse VDSL rollout is flawed (the cabinets are generally too far from customers premises), so speeds are too slow. Verizon has given up with further significant FiOS rollout. I don't really think this matters too much. TWC and Charter serve different areas, so there is no real change in co…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I do wonder if the cable guys are going to go the way of the telephone landline via mobile. I can already get better speeds on my phone than most cable packages. They just need to increase the amount of traffic I can get and I'd drop the hardline service.
>They just need to increase the amount of traffic I can get and I'd drop the hardline service. Which they will literally never do. They have no incentive to. The absurdly low caps allow them to consistently charge overage fees/print money.
They do, though. I pay ~$50 a month for my cable - if an LTE mobile operator offered a higher cap for even $45 a month it would be tempting to switch over.