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from the also-have-great-deals-on-oceanfront-property-in-Kansas dept.
Charter tries to convince FCC that broadband customers want data caps
Charter Communications has claimed to the Federal Communications Commission that broadband users enjoy having Internet plans with data caps, in a filing arguing that Charter should be allowed to impose caps on its Spectrum Internet service starting next year.
Charter isn't currently allowed to impose data caps because of conditions the FCC placed on its 2016 purchase of Time Warner Cable. The data-cap condition is scheduled to expire on May 18, 2023, but Charter in June petitioned the FCC to let the condition expire two years early, in May 2021.
With consumer-advocacy groups and Internet users opposing the petition, Charter filed a response with the FCC last week, saying that plans with data caps are "popular."
"Contrary to Stop The Cap's assertion [in an FCC filing] that consumers 'hate' data caps, the marketplace currently shows that broadband service plans incorporating data caps or other usage-based pricing mechanisms are often popular when the limits are sufficiently high to satisfy the vast majority of users," Charter told the FCC.
Or you could offer some kind of software that shows which users are hogging the network.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2020, @02:51AM (12 children)
At this point, it's obvious that telcos will never be anything but corrupt and monopolistic. They should be nationalized under a mandate similar to USPS.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday August 13 2020, @02:07PM (10 children)
> At this point, it's obvious that telcos will never be anything but corrupt and monopolistic.
Well, they are machines of greed. Making money is job 1, any clever way they can figure out how to.
> They should be nationalized under a mandate similar to USPS.
Many called for that when the govt. broke up the old AT&T in the early 1980s. Of course what we ended up with was many smaller monopolies for local network connection, but some degree of competition (cough cough) in "long-distance".
IMHO, it all comes down to defining what is critical infrastructure vs. niceties. 100 years ago electricity was a nice to have, now you can't get a C of O (Certificate of Occupancy) for a house that doesn't have electricity (or running water, heat, etc.) Now those things (electricity, gas, water, septic, etc.) are heavily govt. regulated.
However, again IMHO, we don't get the lowest possible price because there's no competition, and the local provider petitions the govt. for rate increases, and you have no options unless you go "off grid" and you're allowed to drill your own well and install your own septic. There now is competition for electricity supplier, but you're still paying the local company for wire use and that's typically 1/2 of your bill (or more), and again govt. regulated (by what I consider a corrupt system of utility asks govt for a rate increase and gets it- nobody actually represents the public.)
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday August 13 2020, @02:36PM (7 children)
It took some time, but I think free unlimited long distance is a pretty good outcome from a few decades of that asthmatic competition. Nothing is ever perfect, but free unlimited domestic beats the hell out of the $20/hr we were paying for anything over 20-50 miles in the 1970s. And of course, with VoIP you've got effective free unlimited international now too, if you really need it.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2020, @03:39PM
That's true, but over that same time span they let all the pieces from that Ma Bell breakup remerge into what is essentially a monopoly again. They don't try to charge you for each POTS phone in your house anymore, and you are allowed to own your phones instead of renting them, but look at what we got now: charge you for every phone you own, which the majority of people don't own, they "rent to own" them on 2-year plans.
What goes around comes around. And they'll still merging.
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Thursday August 13 2020, @04:21PM (5 children)
You're kind of comparing apples and oranges. I'm referring to the "competition" in the 1980s and 1990s for "long distance" with the technologies of those days over land-lines. I put it in quotes because cynical me believes they all communicated and price-fixed. Oh, look at that, I actually knew people who worked in that industry who know such price-fixing communication was happening. (But Martha Stewart goes to prison...)
Yes, finally you could get unlimited N. America calling from the local landline provider. Not sure when that started- maybe 20 years ago? But it was a pretty expensive package-deal thing- like $100 / month, and probably still is that expensive.
And don't forget huge "roaming" charges on cell phones up until maybe 10 years ago (?).
But things are evolving. I've told several people to abandon their expensive land-line, which is price-regulated, and buy a cell-connecting landline module. You can keep your internal phones if you like them, but pay $15/month for the same service and more (data). I'm tempted because I live in a very weak cell area and I can't carry my phone around the house or it will disconnect. Landline cordless phones work well though.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Thursday August 13 2020, @05:02PM (4 children)
Optimistic me likes to believe that without the breakup, we'd still all be using 56kBaud modems on twisted pair copper to the home, and paying $30+ per hour for domestic long distance - 'cause you know that copper isn't cheap since the Chinese started using it...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday August 14 2020, @05:21AM (3 children)
Naa, acoustic couplers for 300 baud- 1,200 if you're really lucky!
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 14 2020, @10:47AM (2 children)
You do remember those rental phones: fixed to the wall with 2' handset cords...
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by RS3 on Friday August 14 2020, @01:27PM (1 child)
I remember much longer cords though. Maybe they were an option? A friend of mine's mom recently passed away and she still has a working wall-mounted probably 1970s phone. I'll measure the cord and get back to you. It may be 2' coil retracted. Love or hate it, you have to admit that old stuff never broke ("never" being a close approximation in context).
But you reminded me: one place I worked mid-90s, landline times, did not allow personal calls on company phone lines. Maybe 80 total employees in 3 buildings, each building had 1 personal call phone line, the "big" building having several physical phones on that line. The company owner's wife, who headed HR and many administrative departments, had 4" coil cords (when stretched out) made for the wall-mounted phones. On each cord was a tag that said "Short wire, short call".
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 14 2020, @02:21PM
Classic.
I'm remembering my Grandmother's kitchen phone, which was there on the wall by the fridge for the first 20 years of my life. She also had a desk phone in the bedroom which had a wire long enough that you could move it pretty much anywhere on the bed: luxury of choice and flexibility for then.
Even in 1995, we only had two dedicated lines for 6 employees to access the internet (via 38.4Kbaud modems), and we made up little switch plates that lit up when a line was in use, so you could select the other line for your modem. I think we finally got DSL and proper networked internet access at the office in 1998 - a few weeks after I got it at home.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by DannyB on Thursday August 13 2020, @03:59PM (1 child)
I was a young adult then AT&T was broked up. Suddenly:
* cheap plastic phones everywhere, K-Mart, Radio Shack
* in every shape, size, color, style, and gimmick imaginable
* long distance rates got much cheaper, to the point where eventually long distance charges effectively disappeared from an ordinary home phone service
But the new gouging for outrageous prices was the then-new cell phones.
And then internet service.
It's all these guys know how to do.
How about this: Be the biggest, most bestest, fastest, dump pipes there ever was. At a reasonable price that enabled you to build and operate your system, with a healthy profit. Stop all the price gouging games. Hidden fees.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 2) by JoeMerchant on Friday August 14 2020, @10:50AM
No such thing... without pressure the system bloats with lazy pensioned line worker employees, multiple layers of high paid management, and shareholders that demand 10%+ annual ROI. Hell, even with average "free market competition" pressure you get most of that.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 13 2020, @06:00PM
You only need to keep the companies managing the wires and the companies running things on them separate. Do you remember the tons of dial-up ISPs? You could find whatever feature you wanted. With electric deregulation you can buy electricity from whichever generating source you want. If ISPs didn't have a stranglehold on your last mile you'd end up with a lot more ISPs and could freely choose between them.