Guess I kind of like maintaining the basics rather than the frills--
universal access is the most important goal, as far as I'm
concerned. If this means fewer profits (or a status as a government-
regulated utility) for telephone and communications companies, then
that's OK with me. Last time I looked, "making more money for big
corporations" isn't in the Constitution; "promote the general
welfare" is. So I'm all for an FCC that looks out for us, the
public, instead of bowing to pressure from Big Telecom.
As for frills and new gadgetry: as long as they can be made available
without losing basic telephone services, then I'm all for the latest
bells and whistles. Hey, it would be cool to have a smart phone with
all those trendy apps. I just don't like "innovation" used as an
excuse to raise prices to the point that basic telephony is out of
reach for a large percentage of the population. (I don't even like
the prospect of much higher telephone bills for people who CAN afford
it.) I also don't like the planned abandonment of large portions of
the country where no corporation wants to put up cell towers.
This whole thing looks like the replacement of light rail with cars
and GM-built buses in the 30's and 40's. Right now, municipalities
are trying to rebuild what was destroyed in the name of corporate
profits. Destroying low-cost public transit wasn't a good idea, and
abolishing landlines isn't either.
--Constance Warner
On Jan 2, 2010, at 10:24 AM, John H. Davis wrote:
Constance Warner wrote:
Well, if this is a "nonstory," I'll be happy. Killing landlines
would be a nuisance for most of us, a real hardship for some of
us, and a bonanza for the phone companies.
But while we're at it, we might ask why the cellphone service in
this country mostly sucks, why you can't use iPhones with any
carrier, and why there are more sophisticated cellphone services
(like cellphone banking) in the third world, than we have here in
the U.S.
Computer Inquiry II, Divestiture, and Equal Accesss, for starters.
Constance.... On one hand you want the telcos to have to
maintain old non profitable services and on the other, new
innovative services that all work the same and have interchangeable
terminal gear?
I didn't realize that our phone service was so far behind the rest
of the world. Lighten up.
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