Re: [OT] dialup modemspeed change
On Feb 13, 2008 3:21 PM, Andrei Popescu <andreimpopescu@gmail.com> wrote:
> > Privatization works in third-world economies. Give it time: As soon
> > as they realize they're a monopoly and has a newly relatively rich
> > Romanian public by the balls, expect service to decline and prices to
> > climb. Day 396 waiting for Qwest to fix my broken phone line...
>
> Who said they are a monopoly? They have to fight against cable providers
> who are now also offering telephone+internet. This is the real solution.
The phone companies themselves, and they're right. Cable and internet
phone companies don't have to; and in some cases, just plain can't; do
things like allow access to 511 (road information), 911 (emergency
services) or offer reliable service like real phone companies do.
> A monopoly is bad whether private OR state-owned.
I'd agree with you if public ally owned utilities weren't so
consistently good the world over, and private utilities so inclined to
screw it's customers when given the opportunity. It's not whether or
not they're the only option, it's whether their answering to their
customers or their shareholders. Public utilities answer to the
former, private companies answer to the latter. If you're the
customer, it's pretty obvious the former is actually going to give a
rat's ass if you're willing to do without and the latter will just
send you to collections over services not rendered.
--
Paul Johnson
baloo@ursine.ca
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