I'd like Fiber, but it isn't offered on my block. Every time I phone the Internet company you can hear the sales person's voice get very excited, then become very official when they realize the service is not offered.
Then I realize that there is a bottleneck somewhere else anyway. The service I get has never really changed quality, but I'm just above the advertised minimum.
+Jefferey Cave It makes laugh that when Telecom was sold in NZ years ago they made a big thing about how long it took to get a line in. Now it is a private enterprise and my neighbour has been waiting about four months to get his fibre connection which is longer than it took to get a line in in the old days. Things never seem to change.
Private/Public... the real question is whether or not its a monopoly. When I lived in Calgary, we had AGT (the government telco).
When the government sold it off, they created "Telus", a massive mega-corp... but it didn't have a monopoly. Internet was still sold by a number of minor distributors (mostly old BBSes) and internet was fast and cheap. A few of those distributors became major suppliers. Eventually, Telus started buying them all. Prices started to climb shortly thereafter.
Here in NS, there are several (three?) providers, but each of them are granted a regional monopoly.
I should add, my opinion on Monopoly is that it has nothing to do with people bilking the system: I believe that people still want to offer the best service at teh lowest price. Unfortunately, monopolies offer no opportunity for comparative analysis.
The monoculture of ideas means nobody has a measure for "best", or "lowest"
When our Telecom was first sold they had a monopoly and it wasn't until cell phones came in that there was any competition. While the pricing wasn't bad they certainly found ways to make money because of the monopoly.
101.7 up
20.82 down
"High Speed" means ~6.5up in Halifax.
Then I realize that there is a bottleneck somewhere else anyway. The service I get has never really changed quality, but I'm just above the advertised minimum.
Things never seem to change.
When the government sold it off, they created "Telus", a massive mega-corp... but it didn't have a monopoly. Internet was still sold by a number of minor distributors (mostly old BBSes) and internet was fast and cheap. A few of those distributors became major suppliers. Eventually, Telus started buying them all. Prices started to climb shortly thereafter.
Here in NS, there are several (three?) providers, but each of them are granted a regional monopoly.
I currently live in a Bell district.
The monoculture of ideas means nobody has a measure for "best", or "lowest"