You got it all right, Thom. I've been online since even before the CompuServe days (dial-up modem to BBS), then ISDN, then DSL (my Brattleboro, VT friends also had Sovernet for some time), then cable and finally FiOS. Friends recently asked me what the cheapest way to get an Internet-only line, and you can't touch one for less than $50/month now. The Telco fiber providers have plenty of extra capacity on their lines, and they should be required to go back to being a common carrier, allowing ISP competition.
In Ukraine it cost me about $10 per month for mobile phone, data pack and wireless wi-fi to our house. We were limited to so many GB at high speed before it dropped to a slow speed. For $5 we could add more high speed GB. So my max cost was $15. This was with KyivStar. My wife uses a different mobile company which she has for years. Costs her about $5 per month but no data pack. WE have strong competition.
In Saskatchewan we have a few choices of ISPs but they run about $70 per month for a given speed. If you want to go hyper speed it can run $100 per month (gamers and streamers). No real competition in Canada. Best choices are Saskatchewan's state owned telecoms company, Sasktel, or a cooperative Access Communications.
Unfettered free enterprise backed by big "free speech" dollars is why America is worse off than many "developing" countries. But of course you have Freedom.
Thanks. This is another example of monopolistic power. Of course, cellular carriers have their issues also. I recall the ugly times when US cellular were charging per text message! I never used text and would travel to Europe where everyone was using it with zero additional cost. Speaking of Europe, they consolidated around a single cellular standard so you could travel from country to country and your phone would roam seamlessly. Except (naturally) that phone would not work in the US. US cellular were foot dragging with unique signal standards per carrier - requiring different chipsets in your phone. This carries over to even todays US market except most phones (ipads, etc) now offer the chipsets supporting the EU signals (based on GSM for tech nerds). I was so happy to finally get a phone which would work internationally (once the 'special' costs for such calls decreased).
Adding a separate rant about standards, all of EU has privacy standards (GDPR) which edict what the various internet services can do with your private information and how they must protect it. US monopolies are again lobbying massively to keep their locks on the market and profits (heavily weighted by their advertising models with your private usage patterns). They all know how to protect your data - they refuse, deny, deflect, and ignore while continuing their whining about big government.
You got it all right, Thom. I've been online since even before the CompuServe days (dial-up modem to BBS), then ISDN, then DSL (my Brattleboro, VT friends also had Sovernet for some time), then cable and finally FiOS. Friends recently asked me what the cheapest way to get an Internet-only line, and you can't touch one for less than $50/month now. The Telco fiber providers have plenty of extra capacity on their lines, and they should be required to go back to being a common carrier, allowing ISP competition.
In Ukraine it cost me about $10 per month for mobile phone, data pack and wireless wi-fi to our house. We were limited to so many GB at high speed before it dropped to a slow speed. For $5 we could add more high speed GB. So my max cost was $15. This was with KyivStar. My wife uses a different mobile company which she has for years. Costs her about $5 per month but no data pack. WE have strong competition.
In Saskatchewan we have a few choices of ISPs but they run about $70 per month for a given speed. If you want to go hyper speed it can run $100 per month (gamers and streamers). No real competition in Canada. Best choices are Saskatchewan's state owned telecoms company, Sasktel, or a cooperative Access Communications.
Unfettered free enterprise backed by big "free speech" dollars is why America is worse off than many "developing" countries. But of course you have Freedom.
Thanks. This is another example of monopolistic power. Of course, cellular carriers have their issues also. I recall the ugly times when US cellular were charging per text message! I never used text and would travel to Europe where everyone was using it with zero additional cost. Speaking of Europe, they consolidated around a single cellular standard so you could travel from country to country and your phone would roam seamlessly. Except (naturally) that phone would not work in the US. US cellular were foot dragging with unique signal standards per carrier - requiring different chipsets in your phone. This carries over to even todays US market except most phones (ipads, etc) now offer the chipsets supporting the EU signals (based on GSM for tech nerds). I was so happy to finally get a phone which would work internationally (once the 'special' costs for such calls decreased).
Adding a separate rant about standards, all of EU has privacy standards (GDPR) which edict what the various internet services can do with your private information and how they must protect it. US monopolies are again lobbying massively to keep their locks on the market and profits (heavily weighted by their advertising models with your private usage patterns). They all know how to protect your data - they refuse, deny, deflect, and ignore while continuing their whining about big government.
This is why I use a VPN (“Express” in my case). I also hate being tied to AT$T. Thanks Thom!
Looking forward to the announcement today from The White Scrotus.
Maybe he’ll announce that it’s “Infrastructure Week.”
… or maybe his new book “The Art of the Plea Deal.”
…seriously, tho: here’s a fine article called “The Fall of Russia.”
https://www.institutmontaigne.org/en/analysis/fall-russia
Thank you for that article
Alternative to A T and T was worse several years ago. I don't know how it is today!!!