And yet if I want to stream the local TV stations (CBS/NBC/ABC/WGN/Fox/PBS) it’s going to cost me around $83/mo for something like Youtube TV.
Back in the 1990’s I managed an engineering group that developed some of the first commercial ADSL equipment. We did market trials with Ameritech, Bell Atlantic, and British Telecom. The telcos were very bitter about dialup, saying everybody else got rich using the existing phonelines and the telcos didn’t make a penny. They vowed never again to be the “dumb pipe”. They were going to have “video jukeboxes” (what we now call a streaming service) and charge for the content, not just the pipe. So where are we today? The telcos are again the dumb pipe. All of us ISPs are the dumb pipe. Somebody else is making money selling content over that pipe. But the dumb pipe is a commodity, subject to cutthroat price competition. From: AF <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Steve Jones Sent: Tuesday, December 9, 2025 1:21 PM To: AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [AFMUG] price war Look at telephone Internet is the new telephone How many small telephone operators made it That is the exact future of Internet The exact same thing, only faster. Age related retirements excluded, the majority of operators on this list and the other ISP communities will not exist in 10 years. Consumer prices all went through the roof. Anybody who thinks its going to go any other way, I truly wish it wasnt meth youre smoking, you should switch to cocaine while youre still profitable so you can share with me. I dont get to do cocaine since I became a growed up, but I will put the offer on the table to do as much cocaine as it requires with you to get you to recognize the future. Many of those who took the free money on the builds wont be able to maintain, particularly those who built tarana with it. The small regions where two or three overbuilds exist will eventually consolidate, competition requires customers. Regional monopolies are still monopolies. Monopolies always have the same outcomes. Eventually the governments going to step in to help the way they saved the consumer by breaking up Ma Bell. I dont know how big a cocoa plant is, but if somebody could dwarf them, maybe small scale cocaine production in the fiber huts would be an option to subsidize the burdens, But then your techs would be at risk of kinetic strikes. but pretty much without cocaine adjuncts, small operators are going to get edged out of the game across the board. On Mon, Dec 8, 2025 at 10:07 PM Ken Hohhof <[email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> > wrote: I lost a customer today to $30 AT&T 5G Home Internet. Starlink has 100 Mbps at $40 with $0 equipment, and that is without competition yet from Amazon Leo. All the companies looking to deploy BEAD fiber, I’m guessing they are counting on around $55 for their base tier, and something like 80% take rate. But it looks like we are already into a price war. Are they going to be disappointed at the revenue? We could say the price war will end and prices will rise, but how will that happen unless some of the competitors drop out or consolidate? In the case of the big 3 mobile carriers, that’s not going to happen (although DISH is probably a goner). They could become less aggressive about FWA pricing though if they use up all their excess 5G capacity and don’t get more spectrum. Yeah, right. Convince me I’m wrong. -- AF mailing list [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
-- AF mailing list [email protected] http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
