Actually I think the government should restrict some of the practices of how Internet Service Providers price their business because:
They have a virtual monopoly They have in genral inherited the infrastructure we build and paid for as in Telus Once the wires are in it costs nothing more to use them Telephone companies such as Telstra charged as of recently $25 cents per call from a home phone to a home phone... which charges may have been jusitfied whe an operator worked at a plug board but these charges are not justifiyable now. Telephone companies such as Telus charge as much for a DS0 if they put a dial tone on it as they charge for DSL which runs over the same wires and hense costs effectively no more to provide the service even though DSL is 3/4 Mb down and > Mb up while DS0 is 64 kb or about 1/12th of the DS0 down. In fact we can install asterisk and pretty much provide our own dial tone and back haul over a net connection. Telephone companies such as Telus continue to install copper when in fact I can buy 6 fiber optical cable for almost the same per foot as copper. Media converters cost under $100 bux. Why use copper at all these days? Telephone companies such as Telus wanted to charge me over $1400 to get my DSL qworking. I built a TDR, shot their lines, told them where the "T" intersection was, filmed them while they took the canister apart which had some thing like 14 bolts so they wanted $100 bux a nut.... the whole job took less than 1 hour... to fix it they used a little wire snipper and cut off the extra wire... And then my DSL worked. Later they asked me to tell them how come mine works an they can't get other's working and I was expected to provide free consulting, which I did inculding that they need to use a TDR to find out where the taps are. Should I tell them how to build a TDR too? But they still wanted their $100 bux a nut for less than an hour's work. We are still left with the unfairness that companies like Telus pay to get internet content from the USA but they don't offer the same deal to Canadians (Its part of their peering contracts) with the exception that a few years back they "converged" with various media outfits so in those cases the peering contracts might be in place... but for any other Canadians forget it. This means jobs which should naturally be created are not being created and services which would be provided were the playing field fair are often not provided. I think it is totally naive to think that ISP's like shaw, Rogers, Telus are any better than a wiener maker who will happily toss a rat into the meat grinder hair and all. BTW I have had refund cheques for $1000's of dollars from a telephone company here in Alberta which I will not mention by name. I had to THREATEN them with legal action and point out to their lawyers it was still small claims but that I was going to ask the judge first to order discovery. You see with discovery both sides have to cough up all evidence they wish to present in court. I wanted them to provide me with the bases of their billing. I found the legal department in fact does answer their phones. Out popped a cheque. I called back, threatened again to haul them into court unless they provided a correct cheque and the proper accounting. Out popped yet another cheque. So I called back yet again and this time the lawyer said he's already sent out two cheques and will send out a third. Fine... I asked for the proper accounting. When the 3rd cheque arrived it came without accounting but I figured it was in the ball park of what the court would award so I took the cheques to the bank and cashed them and dropped the matter. I never did get an accounting. If anyone wonders in this matter how all this extra billing took place... it was pre-authorized on a credit card. I found I could not just ask the bank to refuse to honor the bill. They sent out the cash automatically and expected me to pay. This after more than one trip to the bank. So in this case I ended up asking the bank if I refused to make a payment on the VISA would they then stop sending out money... to which they said yes. So I told them fine... I'm not paying your visa bills until this stops and its all straightened out. So you know in a way I'm glad banks are regulated as well! On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 12:45:53PM -0500, Jesse Kline wrote: > You think government should restrict how Internet service providers price > their services because people might put eyeballs in corned beef? Is that the > "if government regulation is good in one area, then we should regulate > everything" argument? > > On Sat, Feb 12, 2011 at 12:14 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > > No reason the government should be telling private businesses how to run > > tehir business? > > > > Lord! > > > > DO you think there might be butchers who toss rats into the meat grinder > > which makes hot dogs if it were legal for them to do it? > > > > How about eye balls in cans of corned beef? A neighbour found part of one > > in his sandwich. > > > > What about glycol in wine? > > > > What about melamine in milk? > > > > If builders in this city could get away with leaving insulation out of > > their houses do you think they might? > > > > What about plastic plumbing pipes in contact with the flue of the furnace? > > Or all the wiring in the basement of a house AND the kitchen run off one > > breaker? > > > > How about floor joists sitting with 1/4" of catch on the supporting wall > > and we're talking about the joists which hold up the middle of the living > > room floor where perhaps someone might want to place a piano or where lots > > of people might gather for a party... > > > > This is WITH regulations. > > > > > > On Sat, Jan 29, 2011 at 11:26:30AM -0500, Jesse Kline wrote: > > > <sarcasm>My god! Private, for-profit companies want to charge customers > > > based on the amount of resources they consume. What is this world coming > > > to?</sarcasm> > > > > > > I think this issue is fairly simple. There is no reason the government > > > should be telling companies how to run their businesses. I don't like > > UBB, > > > but I see no reason why companies should not be allowed to engage in the > > > practice. As with the net neutrality issue, the problem is a lack of > > > competition, not a lack of regulation. There is obviously a demand for > > > unlimited Internet and, as the article said, smaller ISPs would like to > > > provide the service. We should be pushing policy makers to make it easier > > > for new ISPs to break into the market and to provide service that > > utilizes > > > their own infrastructure, instead of relying on the existing companies > > and > > > common carrier provisions. Here are a few ideas of what we can do: > > > http://thesis.kline.ca/net-neutrality?start=4 > > > > > > But the open media guys are not pushing for competition, because they > > think > > > the Internet should be a public good. Simply put, they hate private > > > companies and look to the government to solve all their problems. It is > > no > > > wonder that the NDP is on the same side of the issue. > > > > > > Jesse > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > clug-talk mailing list > > > [email protected] > > > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > > > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > > > **Please remove these lines when replying > > > > _______________________________________________ > > clug-talk mailing list > > [email protected] > > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > > **Please remove these lines when replying > > > > > > -- > Jesse Kline, M.J. > Freelance Journalist > http://jesse.kline.ca/ > _______________________________________________ > clug-talk mailing list > [email protected] > http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca > Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) > **Please remove these lines when replying _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [email protected] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca Mailing List Guidelines (http://clug.ca/ml_guidelines.php) **Please remove these lines when replying
