[flere-imsaho]

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

I realize that they likely have super fast interwebs there, but this is FANTASTIC in terms of speed and quality. The interface is pretty nice as well. I'm on board.

Same here.

Originally Posted by ISiddiqui

I keep hearing this, but whenever I've asked for some proof of how much cable companies have been given by taxpayer, I get absolutely nothing, just "we've given them money". So pardon me for being a bit wary of what I see are just bald assertions.

Fine. I don't have time to do a forensic analysis of all the ways taxpayer money has made its way to cable and/or telecom companies. I'll stop arguing the point, but I'm not going to concede it, as it seems more believable to me that these companies have been the beneficiaries of significant taxpayer dollars (direct, indirect, whatever) than not, given the way this works in many of our "free market" industries.

It appears we may turn broadband into a public utility at some point, but in seeing what occurs with my utilities (in Atlanta, for one, the water bill just randomly shot up for no reason two years ago and then randomly dropped last year), I'm not sure that's the way to go. In addition, the vast majority of utilities I've seen meter out their usage (water, sewage, gas, electricity) .

I'm not saying it would be a great solution. It might not even be a better solution. But it might be a less offensive solution.

I'm amused that the answer to being scared of cable broadband putting data caps is to turn them into a utility, when every utility bill I've ever gotten has charged me based on my specific usage. Furthermore, I've never had a choice of my utility company. So if I were to treat Comcast as a utility for internet, based on how other utilities work, it'd seem to be that I'd only have one choice for broadband (Comcast) and they'd charge me like $25 for every 100GB of usage or something... isn't that how utilities work in your neck of the woods?

I would actually be happier with a charge by usage, especially if said charges & usage were relatively transparent and predictable (as they are, generally, for utilities). The problem with the current implementation of caps is that they aren't either, typically. And, more importantly, these companies have no incentive to improve transparency and predictability (of usage/billing), unlike utilities (whose incentive is based on regulations, but still exists).