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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: 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]