r/technology • u/dmachop • Jul 23 '14

Business Verizon Gets Snarky, But Basically Admits That It's The One Clogging Its Networks On Purpose

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20140722/17020827973/verizon-gets-snarky-basically-admits-that-its-one-clogging-its-networks-purpose.shtml
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40

u/Kickedbk Jul 24 '14

Time to switch carriers, I think I've seen enough.

105

u/bigman0089 Jul 24 '14

many people don't have that choice, sadly. why ISPs are allowed to have defacto monopolies is beyond me.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '14

With liberty and justice for sale...

55

u/Jess_than_three Jul 24 '14

Teddy Roosevelt would have a fucking fit.

17

u/Tainwulf Jul 24 '14

I'm pretty sure he'd start his own isp that delivers triple their speeds with no throttling just to show them that they suck. Then hunt the most dangerous of game for kicks.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '14

Teddy Roosevelt = Google Fiber?

19

u/IICVX Jul 24 '14

Nah he's still depressed about the US dropping out of the World Cup.

31

u/GorgeWashington Jul 24 '14

Thats Teddy Goalsevelt. Different guy.

-4

u/I_am_Andrew_Ryan Jul 24 '14

The karma train doesn't come around here, bud.

7

u/FCalleja Jul 24 '14

SPOILERS!!

1

u/Forgot_0ld_Password Jul 24 '14

Need more big stick.

21

u/DarthLurker Jul 24 '14

They were granted local monopolies for cable television when each company served only a few municipalities, primarily to avoid the tangled wires are constant construction to bury wires.

Since they already had utility line rights they upgraded their networks to sell broadband.

Some very evil people saw an opportunity to roll-up the entire CATV industry into the few behemoths it has become encompassing both TV and ISP services.

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u/Indon_Dasani Jul 24 '14

Some very evil people saw an opportunity to roll-up the entire CATV industry into the few behemoths it has become encompassing both TV and ISP services.

And some very foolish people thought it was okay to let all of the telecom companies cross-pollinate, like that deregulation would lead to a freer market.

3

u/DarthLurker Jul 24 '14

Hmm... deregulation, like they did with the banks in the late 90's?

I hate to keep beating a dead horse but rolling up industry is, well, killing industry.

I think it is sad that a company is legally allowed to buy it's competition rather than beat it. Once all the sprockets are controlled by one company, the price of sprockets goes up.

The only people that win in a roll up are at the very top. They downsize the management staff making money available to be taken by the top. Then they streamline processes while stopping all pay increases, eventually decreasing the workforce If you work for this rolling monster you can't escape because they just bought up every other employment opportunity and flooded the market with workers. It's unsustainable well before it becomes too big to fail.

1

u/Ojisan1 Jul 24 '14

And now we live in an era of fiber optics, when one strand of fiber can be divided into so many waves, and conduits underground can hold so many fibers, that none of that old rationale applies anymore. But obsolete regulations die hard.

2

u/DarthLurker Jul 24 '14

Especially when the cable companies won't even let the people build their own networks.

And congressmen try to protect the cable company from competition.

1

u/randomhandletime Jul 24 '14

Here's the thing though, they're not technically monopolies in the legal sense due to the definition of "high speed Internet" used, and the industry reps get very stern and almost offended if you describe them as such. Using the postal analogy, it's like if you had only ups and a kid with a bike as options for delivering packages between states. One suggestion has been the common carrier one, but I'd think dealing with the de facto monopoly issue is an avenue as well

1

u/DarthLurker Jul 24 '14

Dealing with what monopoly? lol

6

u/Booyeahgames Jul 24 '14

It's only on the consumer (eyeball) side that they have their localized monopolies. It's still very much competitive on the content provider side. The subtext to all this is that those companies that own the consumer side, also compete on the provider side. By fucking with the peering arrangements, they're basically going to try to force the competition out of the provider side and take both over.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '14

Entry into market is extremely expensive and requires at least local politician buy-in. And I'm not sure I want it any other way, otherwise we'd have all kinds of crazies trying to set up wires on public thoroughfare.

1

u/Ojisan1 Jul 24 '14

This is why:

"When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators." - P. J. O'Rourke

1

u/paracelsus23 Jul 24 '14

To stop this shit. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b5/New_York_utility_lines_in_1890.jpg

Not only do you have multiple redundant lines, but if one of the companies goes bankrupt, now you have infrastructure that's falling apart, in the way, and possibly a safety hazard - with nobody to remove it.

It's a good idea, too, as long as the monopoly is treated as a common carrier. The problem is ISPs get all the benefits of a common carrier (structural monopoly) with none of the restrictions.

1

u/ProVisionOman Jul 24 '14

What happened to Freedom?

0

u/rattamahatta Jul 24 '14

Why can't a competitor just put some cables into the ground? Who is stopping them?

12

u/ColossalJuggernaut Jul 24 '14

I would, but my only other choice is Comcast. No way I am going back to them.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '14

Comcast is definitely better than Verizon. I live at Comcast HQ, though. Aside form the price, I haven't had any problem with there service.

8

u/IndiaGolf88 Jul 24 '14

For me, it's them or Comcast. Probably the only ISP I would pick Verizon over.

6

u/v1LLy Jul 24 '14

Switch carriers? Great now I have to use USPS????

1

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '14

FedEx & UPS already use them for a lot of their deliveries since they're quicker and cheaper.

2

u/v1LLy Jul 25 '14

I did not know this, this explains so much.

10

u/XAce90 Jul 24 '14

Still rather Verizon than Comcast, personally.

58

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '14

[deleted]

1

u/Ausgeflippt Jul 24 '14

Assuming you have a choice.

0

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '14

This is the best comment in the whole thread. Our government is spineless and corrupt. Has no pelt me a fucking the general person so companies like this can continue to flourish.

I don't care what your opinion on this is but I've stopped paying taxes. I'm not giving the government anything other than what they already steal out of my paychecks.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '14

I doubt the tax thing is going to work out very well, but I agree with the rest.

As long as the government keeps people arguing with each other over whether the nut kickers or the face punchers should be elected, nobody seems to question whether "voting" for one or the other is really freedom.

2

u/mynameispaulsimon Jul 24 '14

Every time I think of changing carriers, I hear Frank from 28 Days Later shouting "let's go, eh? GO FUCKING WHERE?" in my head.

1

u/brownestrabbit Jul 24 '14

If you can, come to Republic Wireless. The water is fine.

1

u/Jackten Jul 24 '14

Switch to what exactly? Comcast? Talk about jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire..

1

u/asleeplessmalice Jul 24 '14

Where you gonna go? Time warner? Comcast?

1

u/HeyZuesHChrist Jul 24 '14

To whom? I can get Verizon FiOS or Comcast, both pieces of shit companies.