DailyTech: Obama Pushes Ambitious Tech Agenda; Tops on List: Privacy, Fast Net

[Genx87]

Originally posted by: chess9

Originally posted by: JS80

low-cost, fast, private internet

So what do we have now?

High cost, low speed, unreliable private internet.

This should be a more heavily regulated area of commerce. Prices have risen almost as fast as pharmaceutical prices, but without a concomitant rise in quality or reliability. At least where I am. Too few real players and no price competition. Barriers are probably too high.

-Robert

Where do you live? In my area the cost of Internet has gone from 49.99 for a 1.5Mbps line to 44.99 for a 10Mbps line in the last 7 years.

 

[heyheybooboo]

Originally posted by: JS80

low-cost, fast, private internet

So what do we have now?

high-cost, slow, major-suckage Charter broadband for me. I'd switch back to Southern Bell (now AT&T) aDSL but their crap-factor is also off the charts.

 

[SP33Demon]

Many of you are touting that internet prices are coming down and speeds are going up, but you completely miss the point that they can be faster than what they are if regulations/caps were removed.

 

[chess9]

Originally posted by: Genx87

Originally posted by: chess9

Originally posted by: JS80

low-cost, fast, private internet

So what do we have now?

High cost, low speed, unreliable private internet.

This should be a more heavily regulated area of commerce. Prices have risen almost as fast as pharmaceutical prices, but without a concomitant rise in quality or reliability. At least where I am. Too few real players and no price competition. Barriers are probably too high.

-Robert

Where do you live? In my area the cost of Internet has gone from 49.99 for a 1.5Mbps line to 44.99 for a 10Mbps line in the last 7 years.

Mine has gone from $14.95 to $29.95 in the past year for 750k, which actually gives me about 120K MAX and is often down. Pinellas County, Florida. I have to pay $44.95 for 1.5bps, but it is capped around 1.0bps. Those suckers at Brighthouse are bald face liars.

-Robert

 

[Ferocious]

Obama wants the country to move forward....not backwards like Bush.

 

[DarrelSPowers]

Originally posted by: Ferocious
Obama wants the country to move forward....not backwards like Bush.

this.

I'm liking that the Pres-elect is hitting the ground running with some good ideas.

 

[Xavier434]

This news is fantastic.

 

[Dufusyte]

How about if the government subsidizes the internet, and takes the opportunity to regulate and control its content for the good of us all. Now wouldn't that be a nice idea? And then after the internet is "managed", the next guy can proceed to tax it, because, well, it's a possible revenue stream.

Such a trend is simply inevitable. The first government intervention (at hand) is always positive, and then the hand of government turns to control and then it turns to taking (taxing).

I predict in 10 years the current internet will be a government sponsored entity, and a wretched one at that, and there will spring up an alternative, truly private internet for those who can afford to pay for it. Like healthcare, in countries where the government provides a "free" healthcare service (usually wretched), there simultaneously exist private healthcare providers which provide a much better service, though at a cost. Education is the same way: the gov-sponsored public schools are wretched, and the private schools are better and available, but costly. The internet is being taken over in the same way, and will end up in the same dynamic.

 

[loup garou]

Originally posted by: charrison

Originally posted by: chess9

Originally posted by: JS80

low-cost, fast, private internet

So what do we have now?

High cost, low speed, unreliable private internet.

This should be a more heavily regulated area of commerce. Prices have risen almost as fast as pharmaceutical prices, but without a concomitant rise in quality or reliability. At least where I am. Too few real players and no price competition. Barriers are probably too high.

-Robert

When I moved to my currently location 6 years ago, the fastest speed available was 1.5meg. That got cranked up to 7 meg. As of monday they faster tier will be 18meg. That 18 meg will cost less than what i happened to pay for idsl 10 years ago. Prices have come down significantly and speed is is going up significantly in most places.

Yeah, but I bet your upload has stayed the same or barely increased.

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: Dufusyte
How about if the government subsidizes the internet, and takes the opportunity to regulate and control its content for the good of us all. Now wouldn't that be a nice idea? And then after the internet is "managed", the next guy can proceed to tax it, because, well, it's a possible revenue stream.

Such a trend is simply inevitable. The first government intervention (at hand) is always positive, and then the hand of government turns to control and then it turns to taking (taxing).

I predict in 10 years the current internet will be a government sponsored entity, and a wretched one at that, and there will spring up an alternative, truly private internet for those who can afford to pay for it. Like healthcare, in countries where the government provides a "free" healthcare service (usually wretched), there simultaneously exist private healthcare providers which provide a much better service, though at a cost. Education is the same way: the gov-sponsored public schools are wretched, and the private schools are better and available, but costly. The internet is being taken over in the same way, and will end up in the same dynamic.

Possible? Yes, but anything is possible.

Likely? Seriously man...it is way too early to tell something like that. Health care is not the internet. The two are radically different.


Lastly, private schools are not all better. Many are actually quite terrible. The only ones that are good are those that only the rich can afford. You always hear talk about the wonderful magical private schools and there great education, but what you never hear about are the private schools which charge the kinds of fees that the majority middle class can realistically afford. Most of them are far worse than the public schools. Trust me. I know people that have worked at them.

 

[StageLeft]

Damn did PC Surgeon just make an obama post with the word "like" and a thumbsup and actually mean it?

 

[Lemon law]

Originally posted by: SP33Demon
Many of you are touting that internet prices are coming down and speeds are going up, but you completely miss the point that they can be faster than what they are if regulations/caps were removed.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On this point, you are a liar and and idiot, and I am screwed because of it.

And the State of Indiana I live in and AT&T is a perfect example.

For 30 or 40 damn years the monopoly phone provider had been belly aching to be deregulated and they promised to roll out broadband for everyone faster because of it. As it was they were basically required to get at least vanilla DSL to the State by 2008. But in 2006 Bush's man Mitch sucked in and deregulated them.

Now I live less than 35 miles from the State capital, but in a rural area. I still don't have dsl, I can't even get at&t to tell me when they plan to work on it, and all of at&t internet development dollars are going into only the big cities so they can roll out $100+ dollars a month packages combining TV, internet, and unlimited long distance at prices higher than one could commercially buy the sum of the parts.

My only hope will be wi-max, and while some providers are coming close to my location, I am still out of range.

Meanwhile, the only benefit I get is fairly cheap landline by the deregulation agreement. The second At&t get any slow dsl capacity to my exchange, the landline phone rates double, regardless if I opt for dsl or not. Meaning me and some of my non-internet using neighbors will howl when they finally get around to it.

Anyone who believes these companies can be trusted in any deregulation scheme is an idiot and needs a very large dope slap and a healthy dose of reality.

Meanwhile, can someone , anyone tell me what is the loose lips sink ships reason not to tell me when they plan to get at least vanilla dsl to my area. I do not want to make a 2+ year contract and buy a bunch of proprietary hardware from some company to provide some broadband only to be told at&t is finally ready to roll out vanilla dsl to my area tomorrow.

 

[RichardE]

This is one way to get the bloggers/grass movement on your side, glad hes doing this :beer:

 

[RichardE]

This is one way to get the bloggers/grass movement on your side, glad hes doing this :beer:

 

[NoStateofMind]

Originally posted by: Moonbeam

Originally posted by: sandorski

Originally posted by: AstroManLuca
Ron Paul for President of the Internet!

The Cost of Gold Cable is prohibitive.

You're just plain stupid, :laugh:

:laugh:

 

[m1ldslide1]

As a network engineer I feel that networks are typically way overbuilt for what most people use them for. This is excluding the people that are hosting content - I realize that they make up a larger percentage here on AT, but IRL they are few and far between. I also realize that this will change in the near future as people start streaming more movies to their televisions etc, but the natural upgrade cycles of the internetz will accommodate this without further government intervention.

To me the issue is privacy and citizens rights WRT the RIAA. I'm one of those folks who is split on the issue, but I feel that there is little controversy when it comes to privacy. If the RIAA wants to stop what is currently considered to be copyright violation, then they need to find other ways to do so.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: jpeyton
Broadband really needs to hit the $25/month or less mark to be affordable for everyone.

Comcast/Verizon charge $50/month in my area.

I think that's what Obama means; drive the costs down, expand the infrastructure, increase bandwidth and availability.

There was a reason Google CEO Schmidt latched onto Obama publicly; Google is a big proponent of expanding broadband penetration in the US.

You can get it for $25 in my area from 2 different companies at 1.5meg or 3meg.

 

[OCGuy]

Thank gawd they didnt get 60. And now they are going to boot old Joe from his post, so he'll side more consistantly with (R).

 

[L00PY]

Originally posted by: miketheidiot

Originally posted by: JS80
Depends where you live, doesn't it?

Why do hate fly-over America?

Because they want me to pay for their internets. Eff them.

we'll help pay your internets if you help pay for ours [/quote]
While I admit I haven't studied the issue much, I suspect this could done at less additional cost to taxpayers by updating scope of the 1996 Telecom Act. The USF pulled in nearly $7 billion last year with nearly half of that amount going to incumbent ETCs. It seems like there would be an opportunity for companies to "steal" existing subsidies from incumbents by providing VOIP without expanding the current scope to include net access.

 

[ebaycj]

Originally posted by: Ocguy31

Originally posted by: Dman877
About time. In an age when communication is as important as transportation, we should have government-owned fiber laid to every house in the country so any company that wants to can compete for internet/tv/phone service everywhere.

Yea! Nationalize everything! Cheers Hugo!

I don't see you complaining about your government owned water / sewer lines.

 

[RichardE]

Originally posted by: ebaycj

Originally posted by: Ocguy31

Originally posted by: Dman877
About time. In an age when communication is as important as transportation, we should have government-owned fiber laid to every house in the country so any company that wants to can compete for internet/tv/phone service everywhere.

Yea! Nationalize everything! Cheers Hugo!

I don't see you complaining about your government owned water / sewer lines.

He won't. He only bitches about things that don't affect the GOP much. Since most of the GOP is at the level of "the internet is tubez that get clogged!" this doesn't really affect them.

 

[Jaskalas]

Originally posted by: JS80

low-cost, fast, private internet

So what do we have now?

Slow.

 

[OneOfTheseDays]

It's so invigorating to have a President that supports science and technology.

 

[JS80]

Originally posted by: brencat

Originally posted by: Rainsford
Verizon would disagree with you there with their FIOS product. They spent a lot of money building up an infrastructure in some areas that can compete with cable, and they are doing a very profitable job of being the second provider in a multi-provider system. Other companies are trying wireless internet. The economics work just fine if you can offer a better product.

FIOS is awesome -- 15meg download/5meg upload speeds are great for FPS video games, lol. The best part: ~$150/mo is my bill all in for internet, phone, and hi-def TV.

I'm lucky to live on a corner property -- I can get it since I tap into the secondary road but my neighbors on the terciary road aren't wired yet and probably won't be anytime soon. Poor bastards are stuck with Comcrap. Anyway, nice to have a choice...

What will you do when Verizon never realizes profitability on FIOS and jacks up the price or folds?

 

[Xavier434]

Originally posted by: JS80

Originally posted by: brencat

Originally posted by: Rainsford
Verizon would disagree with you there with their FIOS product. They spent a lot of money building up an infrastructure in some areas that can compete with cable, and they are doing a very profitable job of being the second provider in a multi-provider system. Other companies are trying wireless internet. The economics work just fine if you can offer a better product.

FIOS is awesome -- 15meg download/5meg upload speeds are great for FPS video games, lol. The best part: ~$150/mo is my bill all in for internet, phone, and hi-def TV.

I'm lucky to live on a corner property -- I can get it since I tap into the secondary road but my neighbors on the terciary road aren't wired yet and probably won't be anytime soon. Poor bastards are stuck with Comcrap. Anyway, nice to have a choice...

What will you do when Verizon never realizes profitability on FIOS and jacks up the price or folds?

Do you have any hard evidence which suggests that will happen?