[ale] Comcast Caps Data at 250G/Month

[aaron]

On Sunday 07 September 2008 00:25, James Sumners wrote:
> How can you call Comcast a monopoly? You might be able to make the
> case that it is part of an oligopoly[1], but not a monopoly. There are
> plenty of alternatives out there.

So who, besides Commiecast, can utilize the coax wires that we
allow the company to run through our public rights of way??

I think Georgia Power has a marginal monopoly on the electric cables
we grant them permission to run through those same public rights of
way as well, but there are some gray areas due to buyback rules for
private and co-op generated electricity.

Both the phone lines and the natural gas pipes have been regulated
to promote competitive access to the delivery system, and I would
argue that the same needs to be done to the same extent with Cable
TV and Power grids. (Of course, AT&T is aggressively seeking to
halt competitive access to phone lines on the argument that the
same rules aren't being applied to communications delivery by the
cable monopolies -- the monopoly pair is very good at playing one
hand washes the other).

There also needs to be a clear wall of separation between content
suppliers and delivery service providers or you end up with the
anti-competitive stunts we are seeing from Commiecast. 

peace
aaron

> 
> [1] -- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oligopoly
> 
> On Sat, Sep 6, 2008 at 11:38 PM, aaron <aaron at pd.org> wrote:
> > While having a monopoly internet service provider like
> > Commiecast admit to their need for bandwidth limits
> > may cause some frustration for consumers, the simple
> > fact that they are finally being forced to take some
> > responsibility for their false advertising claims is a
> > tremendous leap forward. It was, of course,
> > Commiecast themselves who created their bandwidth
> > crisis by deceptively and aggressively oversubscribing
> > their services. Yet it is very telling that this monopoly
> > is now terrorizing their captured customers with
> > threats of long term service interruptions for using
> > the bandwidth that they were told they have available,
> > as if it were the victimized consumers who were
> > responsible for Commiecast's greed, corruption and
> > incompetence.
> *snip*
> 
> 
> -- 
> James Sumners
> http://james.roomfullofmirrors.com/
> 
> "All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts
> pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it
> is magnetic to the corruptible. Such people have a tendency to become
> drunk on violence, a condition to which they are quickly addicted."
> 
> Missionaria Protectiva, Text QIV (decto)
> CH:D 59
>