 pnh102Reptiles Are Cuddly And PrettyPremium
join:2002-05-02
Mount Airy, MD | This Is News? Company makes bad business decisions and fewer sales result.
Why is anyone surprised?
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Romney/Ryan 2012 - Put a couple of mature adults in charge. |
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Reviews:
 ·Callcentric
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Much like the aviation industry, the private telco sector has yet gain colluded and failed Americans. In fact, government owned international airlines are not only the best in the world, but also extremely profitable.
While the rest of the world overtakes us in yet another industry we effectively co-invented, we cheer on corporate boards that force us to use expensive and extremely limited products that we do not want -- like capped, tiered, and overpriced 4G.
I'd love to see a RWer explain this one, considering you beat on daily about the free market and my favorite lie of 'letting the consumer decide'. |
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| said by Telco:Much like the aviation industry, the private telco sector has yet gain colluded and failed Americans. Difference is: Airplane fails and people die. Failure to get affordable, quality Internet connectivity: Not so deadly.
said by Telco:While the rest of the world overtakes us in yet another industry we effectively co-invented, ... Co-invented? For much of it: I don't think there's any "co-".
said by Telco:I'd love to see a RWer explain this one, considering you beat on daily about the free market and my favorite lie of 'letting the consumer decide'.
Would libertarian do, in place of a RWer? (Tho, if you're a "liberal," which I'm guessing you are, you can't tell the difference.)
I explain it this way: I feel subscription TV is too expensive for what you get. So I don't buy it. I feel smart phone data plans are too expensive for what you get. So I don't buy it. I do feel that SOHO business class Internet connectivity is worth what they want, so I do buy that. If I didn't feel so: I wouldn't buy that, either.
The model appears to be working for me.
We are getting screwed, tho. Most people aren't aware of it. Even if they were: Most are too lazy and short-sighted to do anything about it. (I.e.: Stop buying it.) My overseas friends, family and colleagues are flabbergasted by what we pay for what we don't get, here in the U.S.
Jim |
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 KrKHeavy Artillery For The Little GuyPremium
join:2000-01-17
Tulsa, OK | Sure, you can choose to not buy broadband.
Or you can get raked over the coals, due to the lack of competition and choices and "Failure of the market" (IE Collusion of Big Business and Government.)
His point exactly.
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"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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How are you forced to use expensive 4G??
I have never had a it and see no reason to have it. My family also just cancelled our cell phones because it just wasnt worth it.
EDit:Also, havent you decided when you compain about prices and then use the product anyway?? Why do you need 4G?
There are those that need them for business but most people that I know that have 4G dont really need it for anything but to be in the in crowd. |
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4 edits | reply to Telco
One last thing. I am not calling you out nor am I a RW as you call them. I am just curious and ask the following question for that reason.
Looking at your posts, is there anything the goverment should not own??
Also, how much is the difference between the US and others is the way employment is tied to health benefits? Verizon's NE employees have showed us that Verizon pays all the health care costs for the employees and their dependents. I was talking to a German fellow on a forum and the standard there is the company pays seven percent of salary and the employee pays seven percent of salary and that gets the employee health coverage.
Also, do those carriers, owned by the government, pay taxes to local areas?? Verizon, in my county in Florida, pays about 2.1 million in property taxes for a county with about 320k people in it.
»www.manateepao.com/Content/Repor···2011.pdf
Sorry, while greed is involved, I hate that too many on this board think that is the only reason. I want to try and understand all the reasons that price might be different. |
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| reply to FloridaBoy
said by FloridaBoy:How are you forced to use expensive 4G?? You're not. Of course.
said by FloridaBoy:I have never had a it and see no reason to have it. My family also just cancelled our cell phones because it just wasnt worth it.
I was just thinking about that... yesterday, I think it was. I don't think I'd be willing to go quite as far as dumping wireless altogether. I like my wife having it for safety's sake. I like having it for the sake of making my job easier. But once I'm retired... I can easily see knocking us back to a single wireless phone we share. Just a phone. No data.
The window the TelCos have in which to grab me and get me addicted to the mobile data thing is closing. Quickly.
I can see dumping the expensive Internet connection for a cheaper one, too. Off-loading my email to gmail or the like. Selling my domains. Dumping the web site altogether. Basically getting mostly "off the grid," as it were. Won't really need all this anymore.
Jim |
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 N3OGHYo Soy Col. "Bat" GuanoPremium
join:2003-11-11
Philly burbs
kudos:1 | reply to pnh102
Improving sales is not the objective here. Increasing profitability and getting out from underneath those pesky unions, while shedding an aging and expensive to maintain copper infrastructure. Well, that's the ticket!
Verizon is through with their Fios "build out" as they've put Fios in everywhere they have any desire to do landline business in the future. The rest of their landline business has been deemed nothing but a burden, and given the current downward spiral of POTS subscribers, it's a pretty smart decision.
If you're in territory where Verizon can't sell you both TV and InterTubes over Fios, they're just not interested. They're not making enough off dry loop DSL to make it worth the hassle.
If they can get you to cozy up with Comcast & buy your cell phone from Verizon & bundle, they're more than happy to do it.
Everyone in Verizon territory that's NOT in a Fios area best get ready to either get their service from the local cable co, or end up with a paint can in their attic, 'cause that's the way things are going....
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Petty people are disproportionally corrupted by petty power |
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rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO | reply to jseymour
»Re: I don't trust that 'handy tool'
It's not hard to avoid smart phone data plans if you don't own a smart phone. |
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| said by rradina:http://www.dslreports.com/forum/r27490614-I-don-t-trust-that-handy-tool-
It's not hard to avoid smart phone data plans if you don't own a smart phone.
True, but I'm missing your point.
Jim |
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Reviews:
 ·Verizon FiOS
| reply to FloridaBoy
said by FloridaBoy:...I want to try and understand all the reasons that price might be different.
the single biggest reason that price COULD be different (lower) is COMPETITION, of which there is none in the U.S. (at least not real competition; one cableco and one telco as a choice is not competition and even that is starting to go away).
the single biggest reason the price IS different (higher) is LACK OF COMPETITION and monopoly/duopoly status; this gives the incumbents the power to set whatever price they want. |
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| Great! I happen to agree with you. However, considering they different ways telcos in the US and the rest of the world developed, how do you propose to fix it?? Mandate open access?? Verizon spent alot of money building Fios and it is not that profitable for them. How will lower prices make them stay in the game??
How much money should they be allowed to make nasadude to where you would be ok with it??
Also,Verizon wireline made 21 cents on the dollar last quarter. How much should they be able to make without anyone crying greed?
Comcast made 45 to 47 cents per dollar last quarter. How much should they be able to make without anyone crying greed?? |
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Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
| incumbents stop opposing and killing municipal broadband projects
mandatory line sharing for last mile infrastructure
they should be able to make as much money as they can in a competitive environment; a monopoly seems as far from a free market as you can get. |
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rradina
join:2000-08-08
Chesterfield, MO | reply to jseymour
said by jseymour:I feel smart phone data plans are too expensive for what you get. So I don't buy it.
If you don't trust smart phones, it's difficult to believe your statement about avoiding smart phone data plans because they are too expensive.
That's like complaining about the price of natural gas but you don't trust gas so you own an all-electric house or complaining about the price of water but you don't trust the public water supply and you drilled your own well. |
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 kontosxyzzy
join:2001-10-04
West Henrietta, NY | reply to Telco
said by Telco:I'd love to see a RWer explain this one, considering you beat on daily about the free market and my favorite lie of 'letting the consumer decide'. Years of a lower regulatory burden placed on the cable industry compared to the telco industry (see: DSL line sharing requirements; wacky requirements placed on the GTE/Bell Atlantic merger, telcos had to jump through hoops to sell local and long-distance service as a package, etc.).
Cable has won the wire-line race, because it was easier going for them. Telcos focused on wireless because it ended up being easier for them.
The one thing that still smells bad to me is the fact that there has been no cross-geographical competition among any of these companies. Even with greenfield deployments, nobody seems willing to expand their customer base by expanding their geographic reach by building in new areas. |
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said by rradina:said by jseymour:I feel smart phone data plans are too expensive for what you get. So I don't buy it.
If you don't trust smart phones, it's difficult to believe your statement about avoiding smart phone data plans because they are too expensive. What possible motive would I have for saying such a thing if it wasn't true?
What I actually wrote in that thread was:
quote:
This story is one of the reasons I've not been particularly anxious to own a "smart" device.
I actually have many reasons for not yet owning a smartphone:
• The cost of the plans and, to a somewhat lesser extent, the devices
• The increased security risk in having my private/personal data on a network-connected device such as a smartphone
• The increased security risk of having my private/personal data mirrored to or backed up on cloud servers, rather than a server or desktop under my control
• The relatively lousy consumer satisfaction numbers for smartphones vs. "dumb" ones
• The poor-to-non-existant PIM functionality of most of today's "smart" phones
• Being unwilling to spend another $5-$10/mo. for insurance, the almost paralyzing fear that it'd be lost, stolen or destroyed
The plan cost is the biggie, tho. I could probably talk myself into living with the rest of it. I guess I'm just odd that way, but, to me, $1000+/year for a smartphone with a data plan is a lot of money.
said by rradina:That's like complaining about ... the price of water but you don't trust the public water supply and you drilled your own well.
The price of water around here is exorbitant, but I'm not complaining because I'm on my own well 
Jim |
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WhatNowPremium
join:2009-05-06
Charlotte, NC | reply to nasadude
If a municipality goes into the cable business it should cove the entire county. It really should be a separate unit that has to pay taxes at the same rate as the private telco and cable. They should not get any special treatment like free or reduced offices in town hall and other city departments. In other words if they can stand on their own like a private company then more power to them. I just don't think it is fair to take many customers from a private company but force a telco or cable company to continue to pay property taxes at the rate they did before. Who is going to make up those taxes if the telco and cable abandon the area because they can no longer compete.
Muni utilities tend to over charge or under charge and then do not have enough to make upgrades to the plant. Or they over charge and still don't keep the plant up to date.
IF the town wants to fund the project the bond holders should not get tax payer backup. If the project fails then the bond holders take the hit just like a private company.
If the Town wants to build the fiber system as a dump pipe but the customer has to arrange all content then I can be more supportive. I still feel like the system should be county wide so someone outside the populated areas or town limit never gets service like the telcos and cable companies have done.
The only place that has done that is the Power Company in the Chattanooga, TN. If I am reading right they brought FTTH to all customers in their territory. Even Google Fiber is not covering all of KC in either state. |
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 CylonRedPremium,MVM
join:2000-07-06
Bloom County | reply to pnh102
Since they WANT to get out of the landline business (and thus less sales) - it is not a bad decision. They have done very well for themselves actually....
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Brian
"It drops into your stomach like a Abrams's tank.... driven by Rosanne Barr..." A. Bourdain |
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CXM_SplicerLooking at the bigger picturePremium
join:2011-08-11
NYC
kudos:1 Reviews:
·Verizon FiOS
1 edit | reply to FloridaBoy
quote:
Verizon's NE employees have showed us that Verizon pays all the health care costs for the employees and their dependents.
Sorry but that is wrong on a couple of levels. First, employees pay co-pays, deductibles, out-of-network expenses, prescriptions, dental, etc. By no means does Verizon pay 'all the health care costs' for its employees (except probably for the upper executives). If you intended to say health care premiums then you also have to consider that they are part of a compensation package. Those employees that chose to have a lower salary to offset the premium are still 'paying'.
If you want to compare Germany, you should also mention the 30% tax that German corporations pay to the government... in contrast to the credit the federal government gives to Verizon.
Besides taking the reasons the prices might be different into consideration, you also have to consider where the profits end up... who benefits from them and who suffers. |
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