Interesting article on why internet and phone services cost so much in the US compared to other parts of the world.
Sadly, they initially blame the 'free market' while going on to point out that the companies have lobbied Washington for perks allowing them to do this, textbook collusion with governement.
What we need is an actual free market for internet and phone. One where the spectrum isn't considered public property but rather where it can be owned by individuals and companies, paving the way for actual competition. Down with the FCC.
" In his new book, The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use 'Plain English' to Rob You Blind, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Cay Johnston highlights these astounding facts: Americans pay four times as much as the French for an Internet triple-play package—phone, cable TV and Internet—at an average of $160 per month versus $38 per month. The French get global free calling and worldwide live television. Their Internet is also 10 times faster at downloading information and 20 times faster uploading it. America has gone from #1 in Internet speed (when we invented it) to 29th in the world and falling. Bulgaria is among the countries with faster Internet service. Americans pay 38 times as much as the Japanese for Internet data."
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In his new book, The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use 'Plain English' to Rob You Blind, Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Cay Johnston highlights these astounding facts:
Noticed a long time ago that American internet service sucks when it comes to speed compared to some countries, didn't realize that we pay so much more for it, worst of both worlds it looks like.
The US is the shithole of the developed world. The MIC has pulled off the most spectacular, decade-long heist of the American public, rampaging around the world, waging war paid on the backs of American taxpayers through cosmic-scale debt and inflation. Turns out that they can trick us into guns by promising both guns and butter, but we still lose the butter. All our assets are plummeting in value, our infrastructure is crumbling, real CPI is stratospheric and incomes are flat with ballooning unemployment.
Great work, guys. Special recognition goes to CIA, the Pentagon, the Fed, the American Enterprise Institute and the international bloodsuckers who have helped our local traitors bankroll it and pull the whole thing off. Let's have a round of applause.
Clayton -
The British equivalent of FCC (ofcom) tried to auction the 4g mobile frequency range off. For bargain price of £4bn-5bn. Why do we end up paying £800 for a £200 device? Why are we still paying per minute for calls in the age of voip ?
The minimum sum of proposed reserve prices for the whole 4G auction is £1.4 billion - but it is expected to raise much more after the 3G sale pulled in a staggering £22.5 billion from mobile companies.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/07/24/ofcom-4g-auction-details-_n_1697257.html
A spokesperson said, "Today's publication of the 4G auction rules is a crucial step towards bringing the benefits of faster mobile speeds and better connectivity to Britain, as well as stimulating £5.5bn investment into the UK economy.
Jack Roberts: The British equivalent of FCC (ofcom) tried to auction the 4g mobile frequency range off. For bargain price of £4bn-5bn. Why do we end up paying £800 for a £200 device? Why are we still paying per minute for calls in the age of voip ? The minimum sum of proposed reserve prices for the whole 4G auction is £1.4 billion - but it is expected to raise much more after the 3G sale pulled in a staggering £22.5 billion from mobile companies. http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2012/07/24/ofcom-4g-auction-details-_n_1697257.html A spokesperson said, "Today's publication of the 4G auction rules is a crucial step towards bringing the benefits of faster mobile speeds and better connectivity to Britain, as well as stimulating £5.5bn investment into the UK economy. http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/2193819/uk-networks-respond-to-ofcom-s-4g-auction-plans OFCOM and the FCC should open up the 3g and 4g ranges and allow any one to use them. For a start they should allow unhindered broadcasting on UHF . Which has been phased out in the UK and replaced with digital tv broadcasting. Yeah, well, the British FCC equiv doesn't own the airwaves in the first place, so it's illegitimate for them to sell it. The airwaves can be homesteaded by whomever uses them and thereby come to be owned and sold from there. The reason the gov nationalized the airwaves was precisely to prevent massively valuable airwave franchises from being owned privately, and because government, in their need for opinion-crafting to retain their legitimacy, continually try to control the means of education and communication as part of their alliance with the intellectuals. Autarchy: rule of the self by the self; the act of self ruling. | Post Points: 5