Comcast [ was Fedora Eight is out on the streets!]

[Paul Lussier]

Ted Roche <tedroche at tedroche.com> writes:

> VirginSnow at vfemail.net wrote:
>> 
>> I heard, somewhere, that Comcast is actually being sued for violating
>> net neutrality. 

Try googling for it as Ted did.  There's plenty of new available about
it.  Even Congress is aware of it (someone must be up for re-election soon :)

> I don't believe that net neutrality is the law of the land.

It's not. Yet.

And on the Comcast note, I heard an ad for them on the radio this
morning which reminded me just how much "Comcast just doesn't get it".
The ad was for their Business Internet service, which is just
$39.99/month *with* the bundling of a Business TV package.

Comcast (and other CATV providers) *still* seem to think of
themselves as a TV provider first and foremost, thinking the ISP
portion of their business as a secondary income stream.

With that mentality, Verizon and the other "telcos" are going to eat
their collective lunches.  The difference between the telcos and the
CATV providers seems to boil down to this:

  CATV mind-set: We sell television. Oh, hey, neat, this internet
                 thingy will fit on our existing cable infrastructure.
                 Maybe we can make some extra money on this.

  telco mind-set: Voice is data. Internet is data.  TV is data.
                  We sell you access to data.

People want to buy "access" to data.  They may call it TV, Telephone,
Internet, but it's really, truly, fundamentally all "just bits flowing
through tubes".  Telcos get it, and they control it.  CATV doesn't and
never will.  Interesingly, in this absolutely fascinating article:

  http://blog.futurestreetconsulting.com/?p=39

The author mentions:

   "...the firms which created the network are somehow immune to the
   effects of the network.  And, in consequence, so are the networks
   themselves.  In fact, you can look at any of the networks
   telephone, broadband, or wireless and see in them the physical
   embodiment of hierarchy.  Its curious.  Its damned interesting.
   Its also over."


-- 
Seeya,
Paul