What kind of connection do you use to DU from home?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

[southerncrone]

1. Dial-up is my only option.

[KAT119]

15. ALSO....

[theredpen]

2. Dual T-1 baby!

I live next to my friend's office. He let's me take advantage of their business-quality Internet. I am truly blessed to have such a generous friend.

[dorkulon]

20. Wow, that IS sweet. nt

[jeff30997]

3. Other...

I use telepathy.:silly:

[MatrixEscape]

4. Why do you ask? eom

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

7. I am curious, given some news articles I've read about how the U.S. is falling behind some other

countries like S. Korea and Japan in wiring the country for broadband.

Geography certainly plays a part, but there doesn't seem to be much of a national committment to lay out this infrastructure.

[MatrixEscape]

11. Oh, I see!

Well then, let me tell you about rural America.

Since there is no incentive for telcos to upgrade phone line service, we are left to our own devices. Rural America is left in the dark ages and dust when it comes to any incentives given for corporate America to provide broadband to us. Not only do we have poor dial-up, (usually equal to half the 56k bandwidth due to antiquated switching systems and copper) we are left with very few options for anything that is up-to-date when it comes to service. If it is not profitable, then it is not going to happen, and we know that DSL and other alternatives are not looking like possibilities in our lifetimes. So much for progress or hopes that a technologically cognizant government would foot the bill and subsidize the ruralization of broad band. Heck, why do that when it contrasts your best interests to keep more people in the dark about what is really going on?

And so, many denizens of the outlands society are forced to yeild to a corporate solution called satellite. In that scenario, you are charged top-dollar, (I am with Wildblue) with a long-term contract, (mine is two years) for equipment that you pay $300 for to obtain and then are required to endure nothing but restrictions and regular service outages as the result of not having a capitalistic, free-market choice for. Wildblue, and other satellite service providers, know that they are dealing with a fringe aspect of the free-market, i.e., those who are not free to chose a market at all.

While you do get something faster and better than dial-up, that is where the story and analogy ends. At almost $80 bucks per month, (plus initial equipment charges)for the upper-end of the three-part deal, you get 17 gb download and 5gb upload. They use a thirty rolling days model that assures you that a month is a month, but not a month. The best part is that, if you get past 13 gB in any 30-rolling day period, they tell you that you are abusing your privileges, cut your up and download speeds and nobody on Earth knows why 13 gb equals the proposed idea of 17 gb. In fact, the idea of thirty-rolling-day is a bit of an arcane mystery since you would like to be able to use something up and get something back , but that never happens. What you get is a very precise and functional psychological mind-fuck that assures the providers that the limited bandwidth that satellite service offers is more than it can provide at a loss to its users and as a benefit to its profit-motivated providers. Those providers are predators that know, for a fact, that there are no free-market alternatives to what they are making profits off of. I think wolves work the very same way.

And so, while the rest of you are enjoying the debut of video as a means of expression and communication and up and downloading what you want or need to your heart's content, the victims of circumstance that are customers of Wildblue and others are worrying about exceeding the rather minuscule barriers created by trying to cram the most profit out of a satellite bean of users, no matter what. We are being psychologically manipulated about our usage in the name of profit. We have no other options at our disposal. We see no free market in action here and feel subject to those who would only exploit our circumstances and hold us hostage in the name of enterprise. Does anybody in the larger community of Internet users care? Are we alone in this predicament?

Hey, we even have to pay the service for the life our our contact even if their satellite falls from the sky and we never get online again! That's corporate mono-culture in action and its coming to a reality near you as we speak. No kidding!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

17. Here's an example of an article discussing this phenomenon:

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2006/0601.podesta.html

American residents and businesses now pay two to three times as much for slower and poorer quality service than countries like South Korea or Japan. Since 2001, according to the International Telecommunications Union, the United States has fallen from fourth to 16th in the world in broadband penetration. Thomas Bleha recently argued in Foreign Affairs that what passes for broadband in the United States is "the slowest, most expensive and least reliable in the developed world." While about 60 percent of U.S. households do not subscribe to broadband because it is either unavailable where they live or they cannot afford it, most Japanese citizens can access a high-speed connection that's more than 10 times faster than what's available here for just $22 a month. (Japan is now rolling out ultra-high speed access at more than 500 times what the Federal Communications Commission considers to be "broadband" in this country.)

The economic ramifications are profound. "Asians will have the first crack at developing the new commercial applications, products, services, and content of the high-speed-broadband era," writes Bleha. Already, South Korea, which leads the world in the percentage of its businesses and homes with broadband, is the number one developer of online video games--perhaps the fastest-growing industry today. What's more, societies in which broadband use is near-universal will adapt to its uses much more quickly than those where access is available only to the well-to-do few.

The countries surpassing the United States in broadband deployment did so by using a combination of public entities and private firms. The Japanese built their world-class system by ensuring "open access" to residential telephone lines, meaning competitors paid the same wholesale price to use the wires. The country is also establishing a super-fast, nationwide fiber system via a combination of tax breaks, debt guarantees and subsidies. But of particular note, the Japanese government also encouraged municipalities to build their own networks, especially in rural areas. Towns and villages willing to set up their own ultra-high-speed fiber networks received government subsidies covering approximately one-third of their costs.

Unfortunately, the United States has pursued the opposite policy. President Bush has called for "universal, affordable access for broadband technology by the year 2007," and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin claims broadband deployment is his "highest priority." But they have made no progress toward these goals; in fact, they have rewarded their corporate cronies for maintaining high prices, low speeds and lackluster innovation. Federal policies have not merely failed to correct our broadband problems, they have made them worse. Instead of encouraging competition, the FCC has allowed DSL providers and cable companies to shut out competitors by denying access to their lines. And whereas the Japanese government encourages individual towns to set up their own "Community Internet," Washington has done nothing. Fourteen states in the United States now have laws on the books restricting cities and towns from building their own high-speed Internet networks. No wonder America is falling behind its Asian competitors.

[Canuckistanian]

21. Same story here in Canada

I live in a rural area and I can't even get wireless service where I live. Well, I can, but not at these prices.

No Cable, no ISDN, no WiFi out here in the boonies.

My only options are Satellite (don't trust it - what if the satellite goes down?) and wireless.
But, to get wireless, I have to shell out about $500 for a tower and pay about $40/month. Out of the question right now.

Whenever I ask a service provider about wireless service, I always tell them about a nearby ommunications tower that could service about 50 households. But they're never interested in installing an access point there.

It's driving me nuts.

[Botany]

5. Miss Cleo is my link

Broadband :rofl:

[rocktivity]

6. In 2002, I decided I'd rather have high-speed internet than premium cable

even though it meant giving up The Sopranos.

:headbang:
rocknation

[ebayfool]

8. Dial-Up. For now.

Don't know how long we can maintain it, though. Phone & cheap net access are the last of the extras.

[TahitiNut]

9. Cable connections come in a wide range of speeds - if that's of interest.

My cable company offers speeds ranging from 115kbps to 6mbps. The lowest speed is the equivalent of 4x dialup or about the same as an average ISDN (not next door to the CO).

[Hubert H. Hubert]

10. HTTP. n/t

:evilgrin:

[Wiley50]

12. Verizon Broadband access Cell card (kyocera) in my laptop

The best way to surf when you live on a sailboat

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

13. There's water in Lebanon, TN to moor or slip a sailboat?

[Wiley50]

14. Yep, Cumberland River, Old Hickory Lake

Connected to the Gulf of Mexico at Mobile, Al
via the Tennessee River to the Tom Bigbee Waterway

[salin]

18. Sprint wireless broadband (wand in USB port)

I live, work and weekend in three different places - one service covers all.

[CRF450]

16. Cable internet!

High speed internet is the way to go nowadays. And for most websites, dail-up is almost worthless because of all the animated ads and videos being shown on the sides.

[XemaSab]

19. Stolen wifi

:D

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

22. No wonder my web browsing has slowed down so much. Curse you!

[JacquesMolay]

23. But I'd like to see Universal wi-fi.

Road Runner is too damned expensive.