FCC just tripled the number of US households without broadband

It goes up too much, I will not use the internet. Food & groceries is more important to us. :) I will go back to snail mail for my bills and have my checking account statement mailed to me. I do like being on these forums though.

I thought the FCC was going to require the 3 mbps speed be required discount for those who have low income, disabled and or seniors. It instead of $39.95 economy service, it will cost $10.00 plus modem rental. I am currently on a special, which is only costing me $19.95 plus a modem fee.

Personally, in the US, I think internet should be provided and regulated by the government. People would pay like $25.00 a month to supplement it. I think the internet has become almost a necessity in today's society. Bill paying, banking, paying taxes, etc., I think all schools should provide tablets for kids, their books be digital, and assignments posted online, etc.. If a child were sick, they could still get their assignments even at home.

When a society becomes so dependent on a technology it should not be privatized to profit a greedy corporation. Of course, I also think there should be National Health Care in the US. So, I doubt it will ever happen, the new American way is to be exploited.

Trust_No1 said:

Personally, in the US, I think internet should be provided and regulated by the government. People would pay like $25.00 a month to supplement it. I think the internet has become almost a necessity in today's society. Bill paying, banking, paying taxes, etc., I think all schools should provide tablets for kids, their books be digital, and assignments posted online, etc.. If a child were sick, they could still get their assignments even at home. When a society becomes so dependent on a technology it should not be privatized to profit a greedy corporation. Of course, I also think there should be National Health Care in the US. So, I doubt it will ever happen, the new American way is to be exploited.

agreed, internet should be a public utility and government jurisdictions should be able to offer internet connection services (competition!) . internet is not based on supply and demand, it is based on corporate greed and gouging.

groze said:

It goes up too much, I will not use the internet. Food & groceries is more important to us. :) I will go back to snail mail for my bills and have my checking account statement mailed to me. I do like being on these forums though.

I thought the FCC was going to require the 3 mbps speed be required discount for those who have low income, disabled and or seniors. It instead of $39.95 economy service, it will cost $10.00 plus modem rental. I am currently on a special, which is only costing me $19.95 plus a modem fee.

Hi there

without getting into the realms of Politics you might find that using Older ways of doing things actually cost you MORE.

For example Snail mail costs quite a bit now in most countries. Internet billing ("paperless billing") for services like Gas, water Electricity can be significantly cheaper than having paper bills.

Even Online grocery shopping can work out cheaper compared withg taking the car out, cost of Gas, parking and the sheer hassle of getting too and from the store and the endless traipse around those places trying to sell you one of the 452 varieties of Salad Lettuce or whatever.

My experience from living and working in various places leads me to surmise that apart from running the Military ANYTHING run by a National Govt leads to poor service, lack of innovation, creaking infrastructure and extremely poor value for money. In general most Govts would be hard pushed to it to organise a booze-up in a beer brewery.

As for health services you could go on forever about the various systems -- again if it's run centrally then it becomes almost impossible to have it changed to suit changing conditions --for example I work a few gigs in the UK --their NHS is the nearest thing that country has to "A State religion" -- No politician will even DARE to discuss if anything is wrong with it or how it should be improved or even what it's FOR. They all just want to toss BILLIONS of GBP at it without realising that most of the problem is needed with SOCIAL CARE as people live very much longer now -- rather than people needing a lot more emergency treatment. But as the Social care system is outside the remit of their NHS they end up with literally 1000's of elderly people in Hospital sometimes with dementia etc who shouldn't be in a Hospital but they have to stay there because there's nowhere else for them to go which blocks hospitals from carrying out their primary function of curing SICK people rather than acting as "Social Housing" for the elderly.

So forgetting the politics -be very careful what you wish for --in most places the Internet services provide very good value for money and unless you are really unlucky if you don't like one provider switch to another one.

Cheers
jimbo

Personally the increases have already started last month,
Increase of 5,us per service,
Cell + internet + = 10.us and this is just the beginning

Subsidies :/ good luck getting them beside this is just robing peter to pay paul = socialist.

ThrashZone said:

Personally the increases have already started last month,
Increase of 5,us per service,
Cell + internet + = 10.us and this is just the beginning

Subsidies :/ good luck getting them beside this is just robing peter to pay paul = socialist.

Hi there

I don't mind a small increase if say I get an 80 mb service instead of a 2mb service. But in most places you can usually switch if you don't like your current provider.

If you can't switch then it's up to you to complain to your state / federal communications authorities about "Monopolies". AFAIK the US has very strict laws on Monopolies and "price fixing".

In general also "Bundled services" offer poor value compared with individual choices. I've found while working in the UK I can get unlimited Broadband from SKY (or BT or Virgin plus a few other ones) for almost NOTHING plus a small line rental. I don't have to take SKY TV at all directly -- but I can by a separate SKY GO subscription quite cheaply --doesn't need a dish even with SKY SPORTS at a fraction of the price that I'd pay in installing a Dish and taking the whole package.

For example here's a decent FREE (UK) for 12 months UNLIMITED broadband with just 16 GBP (less than your 25 USD for a limited service) a month for phone with 17 Mb speed -- not mega but decent enough - especially as it's UNLIMITED (no caps) and FREE for 12 months. Then you SWITCH again to the best deal. -- competition. !!

I'm sure there's equivalent sorts of deals from US providers too. Probably CHEAPER if I know anything about the US.

17 mb is perfectly fast enough to stream HD movies etc to a smart TV with zero problems whatsoever.

Cheers
jimbo

Jimbo45,
Each county is different. I never did switch my regular bills to e-bill. I did try one bill that way, but they keep switching it back to snail mail, reason they didn't like me using a web based email address.

I heard Canada helps their disabled better than the U.S. in the U.S. they don't consider you disabled if you work but that still doesn't mean you are not disabled.

As far as health care, I could fill up a whole page on that subject-but I won't. I am also scared I am going to lose it. If read my post about my health on the sister forum, if I had to stop talking my medication I would be at a greater risk for a stroke and death. I think the U.S. need to raise their poverty level, so more people can at least get food stamp, I am mainly talking about the low income elderly, disabled and single adults with children. The new 3 months of getting food stamp unless you are elderly(60), disabled and or single adults with children, I think is wacko, especially if you live in an area where there is no job available. They also need to reinstate alimony in other states, this was cause of more people on food stamps and medicaid. They also need to increase Minimum amount of Social Security, SSI to above the poverty level. Just my opinion.

Come to Australia and pay the "Australia" tax. Broadband here is a joke and SO expensive.

groze said:

Jimbo45,
Each county is different. I never did switch my regular bills to e-bill. I did try one bill that way, but they keep switching it back to snail mail, reason they didn't like me using a web based email address.

I heard Canada helps their disabled better than the U.S. in the U.S. they don't consider you disabled if you work but that still doesn't mean you are not disabled.

As far as health care, I could fill up a whole page on that subject-but I won't. I am also scared I am going to lose it. If read my post about my health on the sister forum, if I had to stop talking my medication I would be at a greater risk for a stroke and death. I think the U.S. need to raise their poverty level, so more people can at least get food stamp, I am mainly talking about the low income elderly, disabled and single adults with children. The new 3 months of getting food stamp unless you are elderly(60), disabled and or single adults with children, I think is wacko, especially if you live in an area where there is no job available. They also need to reinstate alimony in other states, this was cause of more people on food stamps and medicaid. They also need to increase Minimum amount of Social Security, SSI to above the poverty level. Just my opinion.

Hi there

Each country of course is different - look at Greece where I don't even think there's a word for Income Tax !!!!.

However my point was that often there is (at least in bigger cities) usually more than one provider and it can save money to switch (I wouldn't say it always does but often). If there isn't well that's up to people in the country concerned.

It's rather surprising though this seems to be rare in the US where capped contracts are still the norm because on the whole the UK can be diabolically expensive --for example if you just turn up and buy a train ticket from London to Manchester (distance of about 320 KM) it can cost MORE than a LONDON ==>BOSTON, NYC or Los Angeles plane ticket. !!! Of course booking in advance gives a much better deal but if you don't know and just turn up at the station - your money would be GONE !!!!.

I'm always in favour of people searching out cheaper deals where possible. Where the Govt is the ONLY provider IMO is when things start going mega "Pear shaped".

As for Wireless that will depend also on the speed of your wifi card and the cable box's protocol at delivering a fast wifi signal. It's theoretically possible to get a 1GB signal but in practice you'd be lucky to get much more than about 5mb with the average wifi card in most laptops.

Cheers
jimbo