Doc Searls nailed it in a post today.
But actually I care less about the right thing to do now than I care about the only thing to do in the future. That’s to build out the Net as a basic utility. Not as a secondary (or tertiary) service of phone and cable companies.
I know that’s not how it is now, and that’s not how it’s gong to be for awhile. Right now the Net is still seen as gravy rather than as meat.
I dream of the same thing. A ubiquitous Internet that we can all access no matter where we are or what device we might be using. Some will say we have that.
Except for one thing.
Broadband providers treat access like gravy while they keep swapping out steak for stewing beef. Through deceptive marketing they con people into thinking they need the most expensive access for doing the simplest things.
It’s called the up-sell. Making us believe we can only do mediocre type shit for outrageous prices. Want better? Then damn it’s gonna cost a whole bunch more. Thickening the gravy to help hide the cheap cuts of beef.
Doc believes this will change and that a lot of money will be made during that transition. I really want to believe. A Martin Luther King kind of believe, but when I close my eyes hoping to see the mountain all I see is P.T. Barnum laughing his ass off.
Laughing all the way to the bank
The upsell is so strange and varied, too. Both cable and phone companies want to sell you “business” grade service, but none of them seem to try very hard, and nearly all of them start with speeds lower than ordinary home service and prices at a multiple of that. For a take at one point in time, see here. For a more current pitch, check this out.
At our apartment in the Boston area we’re paying Verizon FiOS $60-something for 20Mb/s symmetrical service. That’s not even listed in their offerings. You have to ask. Now check the business speeds and rates. Makes no sense.
Anyway, a few thoughts while on free-enough wi-fi at a cheap hotel in Zermatt.
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It would be a wonderful thing, to have Internet access as a utility in its own right. At the same time, though, unless you have a well, sceptic tank, or a windmill, you still have to pay for water, sewage, and electricity. Thank goodness the air is still free.
Mark Dykeman´s last blog ..Lessons learned from breaking into your own car
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unless you need an oxygen tank
Well, OK, there is that…
Mark Dykeman´s last blog ..Lessons learned from breaking into your own car
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