Corporate providers!?!?!?

[vibratoking]

This was mentioned in another thread and I thought it would make a good topic on it's own.

Internet providers - I have two wonderful choices. Comcast and Qwest. Both suck the big one. I get to pay way too much for way too little.

Television - I have two wonderful choices. Comcast and DirecTV. Both suck the big one. I get to pay way too much for way too little. Oh, I can do over the air.

If it weren't for TAG and porn, I wouldn't need the internet.
I don't need TV.


What the hell happened to the free market? Please discuss.

[Reeltarded]

The regulators misunderstood what that task is for because government service is broken.

Bully us.

[matt h]

(deleted)

[M Fowler]

I'm switching from Diretv to Midcontinent tomorrow we'll see how well I like them.

[mhartman]

I cancelled my TV service and kept my internet -- I couldn't be happier. I don't mind the extra $1k/year in my pocket either.

[briane]

yep - cancel the tv and go on vacation instead!

problem is, were supposed to control the corporations by voting with our dollar.

I think most people now are addicted to the idea of having to live up to the social norm - cost is not a factor compared with the slickest shinest iph*ck you can get your hands on. Its really all about status.

Its hard to break any additiction - escpecially if you have lied yourself into believe its a minimum requirement of modern life.

Seek out less, less possessions, that is - and your happyness will increase in merit.

[Leo_Gnardo]

"Five hundred channels of shit on the tee vee to choose from" written by Roger Waters, also the author of "Amused To Death". About this, Rog & I are on the same wavelength.

Never owned a TV. Never paid a cable bill. These two facts help pay my mortage, modest as it is. Back to work . . . pick that cotton, bale that hay.

I catch up on the latest video trends when I visit friends, watch them flip thru the channels by the hundreds, then land on Jeapordy just like always.

[eniam rognab]

no TV here!! just internets. i guess my housemates have a set but they only watch sports, blech.... rather build awesome 'lectronic stuff.

left home at 17, gonna be 10 years ago next month, NEVER had a TV the whole time ever. i HATE advertisements, partially because the stupid little jingles get stuck in my head.... for those back in maine "i shoulda bought it, when i saw it at MAHHHDENS"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ_iM2jrLGU

[NickC]

There is no escape. Ruby Ridge turned out badly. They won't leave you alone.

That reminds me, since TV is a vast wasteland of depraved insults to intelligence laced with propaganda, I should break out my boxed DVD set of The Prisoner (Patrick McGoohan) and watch it all again, from start to finish in my spare time. Should take months. Oh blessed relief from what Zappa called The Slime.

[Leo_Gnardo]

That reminds me, since TV is a vast wasteland of depraved insults to intelligence laced with propaganda, I should break out my boxed DVD set of The Prisoner (Patrick McGoohan) and watch it all again, from start to finish in my spare time. Should take months. Oh blessed relief from what Zappa called The Slime.

I'm the Slime that oozes from your . . . tee vee set, what a great song, always wanted to play that one live.

Another Prisoner fan, way cool too. That last episode is WACK! I was a McGoohan fan from when he was on Secret Agent Man & there's another song I wanna play out, Johnny Rivers did it IIRC. Good stuff Nick, you're hittin' some old brain cells that need reawakening, thanks!

[JazzGuitarGimp]

Yup, really screwed over in my town too.

Verizon is the only cell carrier here. My wife has an iPhone and I have an iPad on our account, 4GB of data per month, and it costs us $133.44 per month.

We had Dish Network for years - Finally got tired of their crap, and switched to DirecT V and as I lamented in another thread here recently, we pay $55.44 per month and in my estimation, we're getting about $5 worth of programming - no premium channels.

Internet - jeez, don't get me started. Options here are VERY limited. Com-Pair is our service provider @ $50 per month. The connection speed is supposed to be 3Kb down and 500Kb up. Usually, when I test in the morning, I am getting anywhere from 750Kb to maaaayyyyybe 2Mb down, though it's usually closer to the sub-1Mb range.

Screwed, Glued and Tattooed…..

[drew]

i HATE advertisements, partially because the stupid little jingles get stuck in my head.... for those back in maine "i shoulda bought it, when i saw it at MAHHHDENS"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZ_iM2jrLGU

"Birdie Googins" is my cousin's girlfriend's mom, believe it or not.

[ToneMerc]

What the hell happened to the free market? Please discuss.

The free market is very alive and well. You can always use your own hundreds of millions or solicit VC or some golden angel investors build your own network, while trying to convince them that 9.95 a month video or internet service will meet their ROI model.

The plain truth is that in many cases the capital costs are too great to warrant multiple service providers. Even Google and their deep pockets are having a time getting new cities as they see the realization that slick talk alone can't build a greenfield network deployment.

So you want to build your own network and challenge the incumbent service provider....start here.

https://fiber.google.com/newcities/

Oh yeah, the cities want to get paid for all that make ready work too. Also, can you provide free or nearly free services to every school and govt building. While you are at it, build and maintain us a dark fiber network that we can use among major locations as well and don't forget, we will tax you to death on every purchase that you made to make this network happen.

Surely you don't think that 5 channels ala carte will cost $5 a month when the cost to build is the same as delivering 500 channels.

Made any money yet with this new competitive network? We should have invested in data centers and peering sites.


TM

[Ken Moon]

I just went through the joys of getting set up in the Denver area, and I decided to get Internet only, and use a combination of OTA and a Roku 3 box with an Amazon Prime subscription and a subscription to Hulu Plus.

So in total I'm paying about $75 a month for Century Link 20Mbps (they claim 40) internet with Amazon and Hulu on a Roku for TV/movies. Comcast wanted about $250 a month, with faster internet, more TV stations and a DVR.

For phone, my Verizon phones seemed to work everywhere but at my house, and after talking to neighbors, this is a known issue that Verizon won't/can't fix, and the solution is to use T-Mobile. Luckily our contracts were over, so we signed up for $160 a month for two Nexus 5 phones with unlimited everything.

Now I have to figure out if there's any money left for luxuries, like food!

[ToneMerc]

Verizon phones seemed to work everywhere but at my house, and after talking to neighbors, this is a known issue that Verizon won't/can't fix, and the solution is to use T-Mobile.

Ah the joys of being caught a null, if they ever deploy "small cell" in you area it will cure that.

TM