The Internet.

[PBSteve]

So I recently moved to Baltimore. I'm in a decent neighborhood, but large portions of the city are... struggling.

Anyway, the following is a conversation I had with a Verizon rep:

Jagger(11:20:07): Hello, welcome to Online Sales Support. I appreciate your interest in Verizon services. How are you doing with your online order today?
You(11:20:28): Pretty well. I have Comcast right now and they're killin me so I figured I'd price you guys out
You(11:21:05): I was looking at the website www.buyverizon.com and it looks like you've got a deal for 15 mbps service for $49.99/mo for 12 months, but I can't find it on this site
You(11:21:11): how would I go about setting that up?
Jagger(11:23:16): I see your location is away from Verizon Central office and so the speed plan available for your location is 1.1-3 Mbps.
Jagger(11:24:01): At the moment, you have selected the Regional Essentials phone plan + High Speed Internet Enhanced plan correctly, and the bundle price is $44.99/mo before taxes,
Jagger(11:24:11): Please click on the "Continue" tab to proceed with selections.
You(11:24:30): Right, it's 20% of the service for 90% of the price
Jagger(11:26:12): The price for High Speed Internet Enhanced is same but the speed tier varies based on location.
Jagger(11:27:02): If your location is near to Verizon Central Office, you get 7.1-15 Mbps, and as your location goes away, the speed plan reduces to 3.1-7 Mbps and then on 1.1-3 Mbps.
Jagger(11:27:56): Your location qualifies for 1.1-3 Mbps plan.
You(11:27:56): I live in a major city
You(11:28:53): Is there any way to have the price account for the level of service you can provide
You(11:29:13): at this point Comcast has you beat anyway
Jagger(11:29:18): The price remains same as confirmed earlier.

At the end of the day I really like markets. I'm a pro-competitive market guy (I always emphasize competitive over free). Markets are designed to allocate resources and they do a pretty good job of it. The idea is to allocate them where those resources can be most effective. But at some point, you need resources - perhaps more appropriately called infrastructure in this case - to be established before you can effectively attract and use additional resources - it's the classic problem of poverty in developing countries. Here's a write-up on an interesting MIT study from the economist:

http://www.economist.com/news/intern...it-cannot-deal

The part that really gets me, is if you look at the details of the conversation above, Verizon is not only providing worse service here, but it doesn't cost any less than better service somewhere else. They're unabashedly rent-seeking in low-income areas.

So as I sit here looking at my lack of decent internet, knowing it won't improve any time soon -

http://technical.ly/baltimore/2013/0...-fios-service/

I ask myself, how do poverty stricken areas improve themselves if private interests are unwilling to make the necessary investments? I mean it's not a big deal for me because I can make do with slower service. But these days, how can a city attract new businesses (and with them, jobs) without excellent access to the internet?

It's the classic myth of a rising tide raising all boats; yes the internet here is better than it was 10 years ago. But it doesn't matter when it can't compete with what exists today.

Why can Google and some smaller municipalities provide such amazingly better service than the big ISPs?

http://www.speedtest.net/isp/google-fiber
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/04/te...attanooga.html

If you want to read some more about it, here's a pretty decent article:
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2...10_002683.html

Oh, and regarding net neutrality, here's an interesting piece from a cheeky brit who's in charge of a small ISP in Colorado:
http://blog.level3.com/global-connec...tal-mea-culpa/
http://www.lightreading.com/video/ot.../d/d-id/710053

My opinion? If I'm over-paying Comcast for a shitty connection, they better deliver whatever content I decide on at at least the speed they promised. Right now I'm throttled to about 500kbps on Netflix because apparently Comcast and Verizon are upset that Netflix is cutting into their cable business.

"They're making money on our services because our horizontal monopoly hasn't kept up with technology, so we're going to prevent their ability to do business" is the most infuriating situation ever.

/rant

[Dayspring]

I'm surprised that Comcast is having issues with Netflix - Netflix is paying through the nose for a private connection from their servers to Comcast.

Welcome to the lack of Net Neutrality.

[ElPanda]

The bandwidth throttling infuriates me and I dont even stream or anything.

It is unethical to start manipulating a service that someone is paying for at an agreed upon price/speed combo. Though I am certain it is part of their ToS now if only to cover their own ass.

Any monopolized service will end up like this though, only a matter of time before something changes the business landscape.

[PBSteve]

Well, it could be that my connection just isn't fast enough for the next step up in resolution.

Not really a point in their favor, IMO, especially since better service isn't available even if I wanted to pay more than I already am ($50/mo for 1.5 mbps)

The bandwidth throttling infuriates me and I dont even stream or anything.

It is unethical to start manipulating a service that someone is paying for at an agreed upon price/speed combo. Though I am certain it is part of their ToS now if only to cover their own ass.

The thing that gets me is that Verizon's argument is "well, Netflix accounts for a third of our traffic so they should pay more".

No, your customers are choosing to use the service they paid you for to watch Netflix. That doesn't mean you get to go after them for even more cash.

[cockerpunk]

Welcome to the lack of Net Neutrality.

+ crony capitalism

it is a myth that we live in a capitalist society.

the irony that most conservatives fail to grasp is that in or to re-establish capitalism in this country, we need government involvement. they do not seem to understand this basic role of government in capitalism.

but hey, cantor just quit his gig in the government to go work for the lobbying firm for an investment bank, for a cool 800k salary plus 1 million in stock per year ... THIS IS WHY WE CAN"T HAVE NICE THINGS

[PBSteve]

the irony that most conservatives fail to grasp is that in or to re-establish capitalism in this country, we need government involvement.

That's an excessive blanket statement, it's easily arguable that government involvement played a large role in getting us to the mess we're in today.

[cockerpunk]

That's an excessive blanket statement, it's easily arguable that government involvement played a large role in getting us to the mess we're in today.

oh i agree.

government intervention is a blanket term. the problem is, conservatives deal with it as a blanket statement, a blanket that its all bad (except when it profits them enormously).

[tyronejk]

Economics, politics, and technology. Looks I have some good reading material after/during/before homework.

[going_home]

The nations largest employer is the Department of Defense (the Military-Industrial Complex).

Millions voted for hope and change, they thought George was spending our money like a drunken sailor, and that he was led by the DOD (and he was).

What they got was Georges mulatto little brother who has made George look like an amateur when it comes to spending, and who is also led by the DOD.

Eisenhower warned us, and now his fears have come to fruition, the DOD/Military-Industrial Complex controls both parties.

http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst3...ts/indust.html

[vijil]

I'd consider myself a conservative, but wouldn't accept the idea that "conservatives think it's all bad". Let's not start throwing any more blanket terms around than we have to... I'm probably center left economically.

Capitalism definitely falls apart once companies start reaching monopoly/oligopoly stages or when dealing with addictive/non-optional product such as water, so government (or something) is needed to regulate that. Here in Wellington NZ I've got about thirty different ISPs to choose from with wildly varying prices, due mostly to heavy government regulation of the big players. It's working pretty well. A correctly administered capitalist society will favor startups and innovation over stodgy big players, which means keeping patents short and copyright law loose. We're lucky - NZ is officially the easiest country in the world in which to start your own business. You can set up a fully legal company with almost zero paperwork in an hour or so. Still have patents that last about fifty years too long, but that's what it is.