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1.  

   Rural Electrification Commission

   

   dorpus, May 19th, 2003 @ 3:01am

   
   

   When the REC was dismantled in the mid-1990s, small rural communities throughout the U.S. lost phone service, as phone companies found it uneconomical to provide service to such communities. Such towns either went bust or people learned to live without the startling jangle of phones.
   
   So it is with broadband -- either the government should provide massive subsidies (which is unlikely), or people will enjoy life without super-spam. Spammers of the future will be sure to take advantage of broadband to bring even more annoying messages.
   
   At what point will wi-fi technologies of the future learn to make use of ubiquitous wavelengths (e.g. shortwave, very long waves) so we have fewer physical constraints?
   
   
   
   

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2.  

   No Subject Given

   

   Anonymous Coward, May 19th, 2003 @ 6:34am

   
   

   The price will keep coming down as us first adopters payoff the initial investment for other users. I started at 49.95 a month, then 44.95 a month, now at 34.95 a month .... closing the gap between the big boy dial ups (msn,aol,elink) quickly ...
   
   Course people will always be as cheap as possible. I'm still amused/amazed when I find the number of people I know who use NetZero as their only provider.

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3.  

   Re: No Subject Given

   

   Anonymous Coward, May 19th, 2003 @ 8:46am

   
   

   My house is less than 150 feet from the phone company and is already wired for cable too. I could get DSL or Cablemodem service with no problems at all in my area. I use NetZero because I just can't stomach the prices the cable and phone companies want to charge for high-speed access. For $50 a month, I'll just wait.
   
   

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4.  

   Re: No Subject Given

   

   Anonymous Coward, May 19th, 2003 @ 9:25am

   
   

   I've been a DSL subscriber for years and find it well worth what it costs me. But my friend, a single mom with teenage son, has several reasons for sticking with dialup: it would cost a lot more -- AOL dialup is practically free if you carry a balance on their credit card; the increased security exposure of an always-on connection; fear of what her son would get up to with access to massive download capability, or that he'd piss away his high school career playing Everquest all day.
   
   Bandwidth just isn't that useful to most people, or it bears the potential for more trouble than it's worth.

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5.  

   did your price go down? Mine went up!

   

   Milnesy, May 19th, 2003 @ 9:52am

   
   

   I have had comcrap for over 5 years now. It started at $40 and hovered around there for about 4 years. Lately though they have been raising the price up. Now I pay $42.50 a month for Cable... and I am a subscriber w/ the best package. I guess they don't care though. Sigh.

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6.  

   Poor logic in marketing dept.

   

   Don, May 19th, 2003 @ 1:53pm

   
   

   I have rejected buying into broadband cable access because of the flawed logic used to justify the $45 per month they are charging. The company claims that it all comes out even if you compare that with the cost of a second phone line and a $25 per month ISP. I use a $15 per month ISP and one phone line. How does $15 compare to $45 evenly? Screw that! DSL isn't much better, even if I was close enough to the phone company to get decent bandwidth.

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