Quote:
Originally Posted by Anh_Minh
Or did you mean our capacities to use the internet to download stuff illegally? Well, yeah, it's not really threatened. But that's not the point, is it?
|
If you have been using the "internet" (which is nothing more than a group of BBSes and MUDs) since the early 1990s, everything is free : all you need is to post a request.
The corporate domination and "their right to squeeze every cent out of us" of many service providers have been the bane of consumers - we have to pay for something that isn't physical and maybe not even needed
Besides, I believe that there will be no need pay for it for the high speed access, since it only applies to surfing. Also, technology sales follows something called price depreciation - otherwise there wouldn't be anything written called "cash flow statements".
A GTS 250 graphics card costs $200 last year I bought it. Now it is only worth within the $90-140 price range. Similarly, since technology improves exponentially over time, price depreciation applies; all we need to do as a consumer is to assess our need and spend appropriately.
Quote:
Originally Posted by synaesthetic
tl;dr version: The Internet is "open" now, but if the opponents of net neutrality have their way, we can expect the entire Internet to become a "walled garden."
|
The Internet is "content based" and has always been free. Google isn't the only search engine on it.
Besides, I think the US providers are catching onto Singapore's ISP corporate styles - provide a shitty plan with half-past-six 2wire modems or cable, market the hell out of it, then when people complain, pretend that it is the consumers' fault.
Followed by staffing their call-in helpdesks with halfwits who know little or nothing about Internet connections and technical systems, then passing the parcel to the understaffed on-site technical department filled with underpaid, overworked technicians running gauntlets everyday.
And the customers, unwilling to pay the $120 termination of contract fee, have no choice but to suck their thumbs till the contract ends. And over the period of the 36 month contract, with each month pricing at $92 for the services and excluding depreciation, the provider earns
$3312 per customer over a period of 3 years, taking into account at least 2 disconnections per month, serious lag when playing games with people even in the SEA region and a restricted capability firewall so hard to configure.
I guess the World Cup corporate fiasco last month blew some dirty ideas overseas.