Phone companies, sheesh

A walking saleman came to my door the other day trying to sell me
AT&Ts combined phone/internet/tv plan. I currently have Comcast with
high speed internet and a regular copper-wired phone. As I looked at
"the plan", the TV was not AT&T, rather they were just re-selling
satellite. The internet access with phone was dsl over my existing
line, much much much slower than Comcast. These phone companies are
becoming nothing more than marketing and billing outfits. The phone
companies could have owned the world today had they just simply
replaced their twisted pair to homes with coax, but instead of
actually improving the technical infrastructure, they decided to be
marketing companies, reselling satellite, and trying to make dsl look
fast. The stupidest thing the phone companies ever neglected to do in
1993, when the Internet was emerging, was to ignore it, hope that it
would go away, and not bother to replace the last-mile wire to
accomodate it. I asked the salesperson why should I buy satellite
from a reseller instead of going direct? She gave me hype. I asked
her to give me internet access faster than Comcast, she gave me more
hype. If they really had something worthwhile, it would sell itself
and they would not need to use door to door "vacuum cleaner salesman"
tactics. Thanks for listening, you can move on now.

RickH wrote:
A walking saleman came to my door the other day trying to sell me
AT&Ts combined phone/internet/tv plan. I currently have Comcast with
high speed internet and a regular copper-wired phone. As I looked at
"the plan", the TV was not AT&T, rather they were just re-selling
satellite. The internet access with phone was dsl over my existing
line, much much much slower than Comcast. These phone companies are
becoming nothing more than marketing and billing outfits. The phone
companies could have owned the world today had they just simply
replaced their twisted pair to homes with coax, but instead of
actually improving the technical infrastructure, they decided to be
marketing companies, reselling satellite, and trying to make dsl look
fast. The stupidest thing the phone companies ever neglected to do in
1993, when the Internet was emerging, was to ignore it, hope that it
would go away, and not bother to replace the last-mile wire to
accomodate it. I asked the salesperson why should I buy satellite
from a reseller instead of going direct? She gave me hype. I asked
her to give me internet access faster than Comcast, she gave me more
hype. If they really had something worthwhile, it would sell itself
and they would not need to use door to door "vacuum cleaner salesman"
tactics. Thanks for listening, you can move on now.


Before DSL, they tried ISDN. Remember that crap?

On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:40:51 -0700, B wrote:

ISDN. Remember that crap?

ISDN wasn't that bad....if you had nothing better to choose from. We
had it and it really beat that 1200 baud modem.

On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:40:51 -0700, B wrote:

Before DSL, they tried ISDN. Remember that crap?

Not crap at all for what it was. I had ISDN in NYC for years before
cable or DSL was available.

Speed was 128k up/down (digital), when the typical Internet connection
was 56k analog, which in real world terms was typically between 33k to
45k. Rock solidly reliable as well.

I have very fond memories of ISDN.

A_C

In , Agent_C writes:
On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:40:51 -0700, B wrote:

Before DSL, they tried ISDN. Remember that crap?

Not crap at all for what it was. I had ISDN in NYC for years before
cable or DSL was available.

Speed was 128k up/down (digital), when the typical Internet connection
was 56k analog, which in real world terms was typically between 33k to
45k. Rock solidly reliable as well.

I have very fond memories of ISDN.

A_C


ISDN still has a viable role as a standby-backup for other WAN
services.

Unfortunately, it is tariffed at outrageous prices which makes
it a poor choice as a primary service for either a business or
a consumer.

The "Bell-heads" still don't get it!

--
pj

I agree that it doesn't make much sense to buy satellite from a reseller
instead of directly from the satellite provider.

However, there are reasons to choose DSL over cable for Internet,
especially if you are using satellite for TV. As far as I have heard,
cable will only give you a single dynamic IP address; and it's a violation
of the terms of service to run any servers. Furthermore, you have to
share the cable bandwidth with other subscribers, and if you are perceived
to be using too much bandwidth the cable company will cut you off for a
year.

DSL is effectively a dedicated private line to your ISP. You pay the
phone company for a fixed bandwidth which is dedicated to you (and you
alone). The details such as running servers, static vs. dynamic IP
addresses, blocks of IP addresses, etc. are between you and your ISP; the
phone company has nothing to say in the matter.

That level of freedom is worth it.

The phone company, which actually controls and owns my pipe, is reduced to
nothing more than a pipe provider to my ISP. I like keeping them that
way. They have no control my IP layer or anything higher (including my
DNS, web, SMTP,...).

The phone company is not my ISP. I declined that "service", and use an
independent ISP. My ISP sells me a static /29 netblock, and routes to it.
They also run my DNS server as a freebie, but I could yank that authority
at any time (I choose not to because they do a fine job of it). I'm
contractually obligated to my ISP not to be a spammer or to do illegal
stuff (they don't want to get blacklisted!). Other than that, what goes
on my Internet link is my business.

I certainly pay a premium for this; but when I hear about the crap that
people who have Comcast go through, I wouldn't consider giving it up.

-- Mark --

http://panda.com/mrc
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what to eat for lunch.
Liberty is a well-armed sheep contesting the vote.

On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:40:51 -0700, B wrote:

RickH wrote:
A walking saleman came to my door the other day trying to sell me
AT&Ts combined phone/internet/tv plan. I currently have Comcast with
high speed internet and a regular copper-wired phone. As I looked at
"the plan", the TV was not AT&T, rather they were just re-selling
satellite. The internet access with phone was dsl over my existing
line, much much much slower than Comcast. These phone companies are
becoming nothing more than marketing and billing outfits. The phone
companies could have owned the world today had they just simply
replaced their twisted pair to homes with coax, but instead of
actually improving the technical infrastructure, they decided to be
marketing companies, reselling satellite, and trying to make dsl look
fast. The stupidest thing the phone companies ever neglected to do in
1993, when the Internet was emerging, was to ignore it, hope that it
would go away, and not bother to replace the last-mile wire to
accomodate it. I asked the salesperson why should I buy satellite
from a reseller instead of going direct? She gave me hype. I asked
her to give me internet access faster than Comcast, she gave me more
hype. If they really had something worthwhile, it would sell itself
and they would not need to use door to door "vacuum cleaner salesman"
tactics. Thanks for listening, you can move on now.


Before DSL, they tried ISDN. Remember that crap?


AT&T owns the satellite company.

By the way. Upgrading facilities is more complicated than that. AT&T
from 1984 till 1996 was forbidden to compete with the local
companies. They had nothing to do with the last mile.

Powerful state commissions and regulatory boards were very protective
of local companies. Only recently with the competition from cable and
satellite has their been this surge in upgrade. The government
finally had to let AT&T compete.
Regulatory issues have changed.
Thumper

On Sep 18, 7:42 am, Thumper wrote:
On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:40:51 -0700, B wrote:
RickH wrote:
A walking saleman came to my door the other day trying to sell me
AT&Ts combined phone/internet/tv plan. I currently have Comcast with
high speed internet and a regular copper-wired phone. As I looked at
"the plan", the TV was not AT&T, rather they were just re-selling
satellite. The internet access with phone was dsl over my existing
line, much much much slower than Comcast. These phone companies are
becoming nothing more than marketing and billing outfits. The phone
companies could have owned the world today had they just simply
replaced their twisted pair to homes with coax, but instead of
actually improving the technical infrastructure, they decided to be
marketing companies, reselling satellite, and trying to make dsl look
fast. The stupidest thing the phone companies ever neglected to do in
1993, when the Internet was emerging, was to ignore it, hope that it
would go away, and not bother to replace the last-mile wire to
accomodate it. I asked the salesperson why should I buy satellite
from a reseller instead of going direct? She gave me hype. I asked
her to give me internet access faster than Comcast, she gave me more
hype. If they really had something worthwhile, it would sell itself
and they would not need to use door to door "vacuum cleaner salesman"
tactics. Thanks for listening, you can move on now.

Before DSL, they tried ISDN. Remember that crap?

AT&T owns the satellite company.

By the way. Upgrading facilities is more complicated than that. AT&T
from 1984 till 1996 was forbidden to compete with the local
companies. They had nothing to do with the last mile.

Powerful state commissions and regulatory boards were very protective
of local companies. Only recently with the competition from cable and
satellite has their been this surge in upgrade. The government
finally had to let AT&T compete.
Regulatory issues have changed.
Thumper- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

With new regulations are the bells planning on replacing to home
twisted pair with anything else, in areas where it will be
profitable? I hope so, cable needs some competition. Copper pair POT
service will never handle the bandwidth needed for entertainment
media, even if it is DSL.

"Thumper" wrote in message
...
On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:40:51 -0700, B wrote:

RickH wrote:
A walking saleman came to my door the other day trying to sell me
AT&Ts combined phone/internet/tv plan. I currently have Comcast with
high speed internet and a regular copper-wired phone. As I looked at
"the plan", the TV was not AT&T, rather they were just re-selling
satellite. The internet access with phone was dsl over my existing
line, much much much slower than Comcast. These phone companies are
becoming nothing more than marketing and billing outfits. The phone
companies could have owned the world today had they just simply
replaced their twisted pair to homes with coax, but instead of
actually improving the technical infrastructure, they decided to be
marketing companies, reselling satellite, and trying to make dsl look
fast. The stupidest thing the phone companies ever neglected to do in
1993, when the Internet was emerging, was to ignore it, hope that it
would go away, and not bother to replace the last-mile wire to
accomodate it. I asked the salesperson why should I buy satellite
from a reseller instead of going direct? She gave me hype. I asked
her to give me internet access faster than Comcast, she gave me more
hype. If they really had something worthwhile, it would sell itself
and they would not need to use door to door "vacuum cleaner salesman"
tactics. Thanks for listening, you can move on now.


Before DSL, they tried ISDN. Remember that crap?


AT&T owns the satellite company.

By the way. Upgrading facilities is more complicated than that. AT&T
from 1984 till 1996 was forbidden to compete with the local
companies. They had nothing to do with the last mile.

Powerful state commissions and regulatory boards were very protective
of local companies. Only recently with the competition from cable and
satellite has their been this surge in upgrade. The government
finally had to let AT&T compete.
Regulatory issues have changed.
Thumper

ATT does NOT own any satellite company. They partner with either Dish or
Direct, don't recall which at the moment.

"RickH" wrote in message
oups.com...
On Sep 18, 7:42 am, Thumper wrote:
On Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:40:51 -0700, B wrote:
RickH wrote:
A walking saleman came to my door the other day trying to sell me
AT&Ts combined phone/internet/tv plan. I currently have Comcast with
high speed internet and a regular copper-wired phone. As I looked at
"the plan", the TV was not AT&T, rather they were just re-selling
satellite. The internet access with phone was dsl over my existing
line, much much much slower than Comcast. These phone companies are
becoming nothing more than marketing and billing outfits. The phone
companies could have owned the world today had they just simply
replaced their twisted pair to homes with coax, but instead of
actually improving the technical infrastructure, they decided to be
marketing companies, reselling satellite, and trying to make dsl look
fast. The stupidest thing the phone companies ever neglected to do in
1993, when the Internet was emerging, was to ignore it, hope that it
would go away, and not bother to replace the last-mile wire to
accomodate it. I asked the salesperson why should I buy satellite
from a reseller instead of going direct? She gave me hype. I asked
her to give me internet access faster than Comcast, she gave me more
hype. If they really had something worthwhile, it would sell itself
and they would not need to use door to door "vacuum cleaner salesman"
tactics. Thanks for listening, you can move on now.

Before DSL, they tried ISDN. Remember that crap?

AT&T owns the satellite company.

By the way. Upgrading facilities is more complicated than that. AT&T
from 1984 till 1996 was forbidden to compete with the local
companies. They had nothing to do with the last mile.

Powerful state commissions and regulatory boards were very protective
of local companies. Only recently with the competition from cable and
satellite has their been this surge in upgrade. The government
finally had to let AT&T compete.
Regulatory issues have changed.
Thumper- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

With new regulations are the bells planning on replacing to home
twisted pair with anything else, in areas where it will be
profitable? I hope so, cable needs some competition. Copper pair POT
service will never handle the bandwidth needed for entertainment
media, even if it is DSL.

Verizon's Fios offers fiber to the house while AT&T U-Verse is running fiber
to within 3,000 feet of the home. AT&T's U-Verse offers up to 4 receivers in
the home and is capable of viewing all 4 at once as long as only one is a HD
stream. Offering a network capable of a HD signal to only one receiver may
be their undoing


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U-Verse