Glenn Overholt
Senior HTF Member
- Joined
- Mar 24, 1999
- Messages
- 4,201
No, but her in the good old USA they call it price-fixing.
Glenn
Glenn
Home Theater
Entertainment & Streaming Content
Physical Media
Home Theater Equipment and Hardware
Other Diversions
Bargains and Classifieds
Home Theater Forum
Why is a high speed internet connection so expensive? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter BrettB
- Start date
Joe Szott
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Feb 22, 2002
- Messages
- 1,962
- Real Name
- Joe S.
Todd,
Let me clarify what I meant. Not that the telecom companies should give it away for free (or incur a loss), but they should be forced to share with others if they are appropriately compensated. This stems from my belief that internet access is a neccessary part of modern culture that is as important to daily life as say electric power or telephones. You don't need it to live (not air, food, or shelter), but you definietely need it to have a fair shake at getting ahead in our culture.
Imagine if phone companies didn't need to share the long distance lines they built with other companies. We would all pay Ma Bell (or AT&T) probably $20-50 more per month for phone service because, well, where else could you go to call across the country? And if they are not shared, you have to then allow each company the right to build their own phone lines. So imagine driving cross country and instead of one set of phone wires across the highway, there were 4 or 5 sets. It would be a real problem for us as a nation. The gov't tried to let this slide with railroads in the 19th century as well, it didn't work out so well.
The point here is that if Qwest owns the phone lines into your house and Qwest doens't have to share that access for DSL to any other competing companies, then Qwest can charge whatever they want. Because other companies can't wire a second phone line into your house (it's illegal as phone companies are legally neccessary local monopolies), they have no way to compete with Qwest or others.
Hope that makes more sense.
PS - To all others, sorry about the politics. Don't mean to offend anyone -- it's just that that is what happened and it pisses me off.
Let me clarify what I meant. Not that the telecom companies should give it away for free (or incur a loss), but they should be forced to share with others if they are appropriately compensated. This stems from my belief that internet access is a neccessary part of modern culture that is as important to daily life as say electric power or telephones. You don't need it to live (not air, food, or shelter), but you definietely need it to have a fair shake at getting ahead in our culture.
Imagine if phone companies didn't need to share the long distance lines they built with other companies. We would all pay Ma Bell (or AT&T) probably $20-50 more per month for phone service because, well, where else could you go to call across the country? And if they are not shared, you have to then allow each company the right to build their own phone lines. So imagine driving cross country and instead of one set of phone wires across the highway, there were 4 or 5 sets. It would be a real problem for us as a nation. The gov't tried to let this slide with railroads in the 19th century as well, it didn't work out so well.
The point here is that if Qwest owns the phone lines into your house and Qwest doens't have to share that access for DSL to any other competing companies, then Qwest can charge whatever they want. Because other companies can't wire a second phone line into your house (it's illegal as phone companies are legally neccessary local monopolies), they have no way to compete with Qwest or others.
Hope that makes more sense.
PS - To all others, sorry about the politics. Don't mean to offend anyone -- it's just that that is what happened and it pisses me off.
