Net Neutrality

[Nocturnal]

I couldn't disagree more.  If droning bothers someone, they should turn it off.  It's really simple.  Radio and TV survive based on audience.  No audience, no program.  Darwin was right.

My problem isn't with either side being able to voice their opinions. My problem is with the general public that eat up whatever BS gets spewed by their side, never questioning any of it or looking further into it to see if it is even remotely accurate. It doesn't take much digging to begin to see the holes in many of the "stories" that are fed to us on the news.

[westen44]

My problem isn't with either side being able to voice their opinions. My problem is with the general public that eat up whatever BS gets spewed by their side, never questioning any of it or looking further into it to see if it is even remotely accurate. It doesn't take much digging to begin to see the holes in many of the "stories" that are fed to us on the news.

Look at the music the public is listening to.  For the most part, it's horrid.  I wouldn't expect much from the listening audience at this point no matter what is being discussed.  Very few care about doing much research anymore; that's the problem. 

[Dave W]

I couldn't disagree more.  If droning bothers someone, they should turn it off.  It's really simple.  Radio and TV survive based on audience.  No audience, no program.  Darwin was right.

Agreed. I never, ever listen to talk radio. Those who want to can listen all they want. It doesn't hurt me.

[Highlander]

Fascinating stuff...

I don't believe in all this monopolies nonsense... surely in the land of the free it just could not be...

First off, in the UK there is only one "network" provider (BT), but regulation allows multiple providers to use their network to provide broadband - cable is slightly different and not popular - never really caught on, but there are still providers...

Just did a quick check for around here (outskirts of London) and with no trouble found minimum 12 providers for regular and 7 for fibre-optic I could use
Where we are planning to relocate to it is about 1/2 that figure...

Somewhat higher than the USofA I'm afraid to say...

Uwe, Rob, other Euro contributors... your country's (domestic) availability...?

[Granny Gremlin]

All I know is, everyone in Poland (all our family and friends) each had personal cell phones and mostly dropped their land lines (if they ever had one to begin with) before hardly anyone I knew had a cell phone here.  The reasons for this were many but mostly comparative pricing of cellular vs land lines in these  markets.  Both places had land line monopolies, but ours were dirt cheap and theirs were expensive/restrictive.  Cellular coverage was easier to implement in smaller/denser European countries vs sprawling Canada.  Cheaper better service. 

Here, there was a huge debate recently about competition and the gov was to intervene in some way (not allowing the big 3 to buy out smaller startups for one thing).  The Cellular lobby's TV commercials were hilariously full of shit.

As for internet, when it comes to broadband, there are basically only 2 providers in the area (3 in all of Canada as far as I know, but most areas only have 2 of them available, at most).  Then there are the miriad of resellers - who buy bandwidth in bulk and resell it, often at better rates, but with various anti net neutrality policies by the big 2 (won't speak about the 3rd provider I don't have access to), such as throttling, (seemingly) idle connection dropping and other bandwidth capping/saving shenanigans (which are of questionable legality and they don't admit to, but  I have to deal with regularly for work - supporting telecommuters on a VPN) the attractiveness of the resellers is diminished as they have less and less control over such practices on the larger networks they piggyback on. The smaller (usually local, vs provincial or national) resellers are loosing their competitive advantage in this way (a great example of this is Teksavvy, who used to be awesome and very straight up legit with their packages as regards network shenannigans and actually delivering advertised speeds, but no longer; it's  beyond their control now.

Broadband pricing, meanwhile, has been on an exuberant rise (in my opinion outpacing increase in network speeds and reach).

[Pilgrim]

Broadband in my area (an older development in a town of more than 150,000) is limited to DSL via phone, cable via Comcast, or satellite Internet. Satellite it isn't as fast as the land-based options.  (Couldn't leave that out, as my daughter helps run the DISHNet service: Internet via satellite from DISH.)

The DSL option is not great (1.5 MBPS)  because our phone infrastructure in my development hasn't been upgraded in decades, and given migration from copper land lines, isn't likely to ever be improved.  That leaves a cable modem as the only "broadband" service worthy of the name in my development.  However, I've found that their speed of service varies greatly depending on the day and time.

There are tradeoffs for allowing the market to control most things.  It often means a delay of years or decades while competitors fight through competing formats and options.  That's not all bad, but it does have its drawbacks. 

[Highlander]

I say it like it is re speed...

... When America Sleeps ...