-
Retiree can't afford Cable or high-speed access.
Read more +Hello, It's my first time posting here although we're on the Internet every day.
Besides news, email, chat boards, shopping, watching stock markets and charts, we would like to be able to have full use of Videos, You Tube and other common uses which don't work for us because we can only afford dial-up which costs us $9.95 @ month.
There must be lots of others who, especially in these hard economic times are having to make choices about whether to cut back expense of high-speed access.
So, I don't get to do anything or view anything that is Video ... it just doesn't work.
Why can't the internet be like the radio, just plug it in and make your choices. This is probably a re-run of previous posts but being new I appreciate hearing from you.
TIA.
-
IMPORTANT NOTICE about High Speed
Read more +I work fulltime on the Internet. In fact, I own and run a webhosting company out of Panama where we have 6 fibre optic networks coming into our data center. Where I live however, I can only get a very second rate satellite service. I have to drive 15 miles to get what I need for high speed when I need it.... VERY frustrating.
Now... VERY, VERY IMPORTANT NOTICE FOR YOU ALL. I see everyone is talking about access to high speed broadband... BUT ...I cannot find any mention of what that speed should be and it very definitely SHOULD BE A SURVEY QUESTION. I am in Nova Scotia, Canada and here they are trying to put up 6 wireless towers in our area to give us ONLY about 1 Mps supposedly "high speed". This is better than dialup but still VERY inadequate. The minimum should be at least 54 Mbps.
If this issue is not covered, then you will see a lot of the rural areas in the USA very STUCK for a long time with only 1-2 Mbps. PLUS... the wireless towers are very bad for the health of those within 3 Kms of the tower. They are now tearing these down in Europe because of the great rise in Cancer and other diseases found in those people near those towers.
Yours truly,
James -
CHOICE in web access determines our FUTURE for jobs & connectivity
Read more +One of our biggest issues is GETTING Americans to realize that we're really at the doorstep of deciding what FREEDOMS we'll have for the future of our options for connectivity of work at jobs, schools, home & even basics like daily news---WE don't have to be SPOON fed anymore by dialy-tv-JUNKOLLA-news that is ONLY interested in tv-ratings rather than helping us to improve our economy & daily work.
-
America is hurt by lack of consumer choice in broadband access
Read more +Internet access in the United States is abysmal compared with other nations. Consumers pay twice as much for one tenth the speed available in other nations (http://sn.im/fest6). Why? Local monopolies held by broadband providers such as Time Warner, Comcast, ATT, etc. have no reason to improve services because their customers have no choice.
One clear example of this is broadband capping. Time Warner is rolling out draconian caps on the amount of bandwidth consumers can use. The real reason for this is that they want to protect their cable television service, which is threatened by innovators such as Netflix, Amazon.com, Hulu, Apple, Vudu, and many, many others. Because Time Warner cannot come up with a fair and innovative way to compete with these services they are trying to make them prohibitively expensive through bandwidth overage charges. If their motivation for this had anything to do with actual bandwidth usage, they would also cap how much HBO people could watch (bandwidth coming into the home is the same regardless of whether you are watching HBO, talking with your mother on the VOIP phone, or downloading a movie from Netflix).
Many people fail to recognize that the consumer is the goose that lays the golden eggs of the internet economy. Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Google, eBay, and all the successful, profitable companies make more money when consumers use more bandwidth. Time Warner and other ISPs need to find new, innovative business models to profit from the internet, not throttle it. If we throttle consumer bandwith or internet access, then the whole internet economy comes tumbling down around us. If you feed consumers a reliable stream of fast internet access there will be enough golden eggs for everyone to profit.
-
3g
Read more +I will be moving soon and have been looking for a Internet options apart from Comcast cable and the local phone company. During my search I found that Australia had a host of options for "pay as you go/prepaid" 3G high speed Internet access schemes. After much searching, I found that the US has ONE company offering this service. Is it really affordable? Well, it is comparable to the offerings by the other services. Still means that I will give up cable TV for Internet access. But, that's all right. Internet access is really much more important.
-
No choice
Read more +Spending the winters in Marion NC is so wonderful except I am out of touch with the world. There are two choices for internet connection, Verizon dial up or Hughs satelite. Dial up is so slow and with three of us online it is out of the question. Satelight is very expensive and also with all of us on line we gobble up our daily usage limit in about 45 minutes. I can't do business on line and certainly can't be spontaneous and stay connected to vendors, clients and information. Uploading and downloading has to be done at 3AM when the connection is unlimited. Its pitiful that this country has to be so far behind the rest of the world mainly due to greed and control.
-
Brooks Townes, Weaverville NC
Read more +Living in the Smoky Mountains outside of Asheville, writer Brooks Townes was forced to give up his freelance career because his dial-up service made him uncompetitive. And bed-and-breakfast owner Martha Abraham fears that her slow and unpredictable satellite connection hurts her small business.
-
The Foushee Family, Roxboro, North Carolina
Read more +"I have been calling my local phone company numerous times, asking, “When is [Internet] coming?” "Well it’s coming, it’s coming, it’s coming and this has been going on for three years now."
-
As Goes Broadband, So Goes the Country
Read more +On January 20, 2009, things will start getting a lot better for the Internet. We’ve been waiting a long time.
For the past eight years, the very fundamentals (which were originally strong, now, not so much) of the Internet - openness, choice and innovation - have been consistently pummeled by the run-away policies (or lack thereof) of deregulation, unchecked market power, and just plain market failure.
Just as those policies led us all down a very slippery slope into our current financial crisis, they have also allowed for unprecedented consolidation, discrimination and stagnation in the Internet and communications markets.
It is no accident that we now trail at least 15 - count ‘em – 15 other countries around the world in broadband. At least. Our connections are slower, more expensive and less available. And for the country that created the Internet, that is a disgrace.
So let’s get on with it already. The United States has yet to articulate a national broadband policy and there has never been a better, and arguably, more urgent time in which to build one. And the quickest way to address the problem is to go right to the root of it – the lack of competition in the last mile to American homes and businesses. It’s certainly not the only problem, but acknowledging this very large elephant would change the face of American broadband dramatically.
The good news is that there are so many ways to get there, so many innovative companies willing to help and so many citizens willing to sign on. It could include public-private partnerships, federal funds, tax incentives and opening up more of the public airwaves. It might consider the universal service fund, originally conceived decades ago to bring telephone service to hard-to-reach Americans, as a way to do the same for broadband. The solutions are plenty, but first we need to acknowledge the problem and make a real commitment to fix it.
We owe it to our citizens to do what other countries have done - to treat broadband access the way we have our country’s highways, telephones and airwaves. Just as we committed as a country to connect our citizens through roads and telephone lines, we must now commit to connect them to the 21st Century. America must believe in Internet for Everyone, for as goes broadband, so will our country.
-
Helping the Most Vulnerable
Read more +World-class broadband service is not a luxury -- not for doctors and patients who rely on it to send life-altering medical information, not for the disabled who rely on it as a communications lifeline and not for the public safety officials who rely on it to keep our streets safe. Now more than ever before, high-speed Internet needs to be available in every corner of our country because consumers, businesses, schools and hospitals need it to keep pace in an economy that is changing fast.
There was a time when some considered universal telephone service unnecessary. A similar impulse today resists bold goals and aggressive public support for ubiquitous information and communication technologies. At this important moment, I’m glad Free Press is organizing forums that can help craft the vision for a nation where we reject overly cautious, overly patient approaches and make widespread, world-class broadband infrastructure more than a mere aspiration.
I hope your participation in the Free Press outlets for online democracy leads to big ideas for broader access to critical technology tools.
America has the talent, the resources and the promise to make no small plans when it comes to offering full access for every citizen. As you share ideas about technology policy and infrastructure in our country, I hope you’ll remember that, in addition to enormous economic gains broadband promises American industry, some of our most vulnerable groups – schoolchildren, rural folks, the disabled, the poor and the elderly – stand to benefit immensely from the powerful change that broadband can harness.
- Access
Every home, business and civic institution in America must have access to high-speed Internet. More »
- Choice
Consumers must enjoy real competition among Internet providers to achieve lower prices and higher speeds. More »
- Innovation
The Internet should continue to create good jobs, spread new ideas be an engine of economic growth. More »
- Openness
Internet users should have the right to freedom of speech and commerce without gatekeepers or discrimination. More »
