[LINK] Why US Phone, Cable & Internet Bills Cost So Much

Kim Holburn kim at holburn.net
Sat Sep 29 08:57:48 AEST 2012


http://finance.yahoo.com/blogs/daily-ticker/why-phone-cable-internet-bills-cost-much-130914030.html

> • Americans pay four times as much as the French for an Internet triple-play package—phone, cable TV and Internet—at an average of $160 per month versus $38 per month.
> • The French get global free calling and worldwide live television. Their Internet is also 10 times faster at downloading information and 20 times faster uploading it.
> • America has gone from #1 in Internet speed (when we invented it) to 29th in the world and falling.
> • Bulgaria is among the countries with faster Internet service.
> • Americans pay 38 times as much as the Japanese for Internet data.

.....

> In his book, he tells of a woman who in 1984 paid $9.51 for her local phone service. He writes:
> 
>> "By 2003 her bill had swollen fourfold to $38.90. In the two decades since the breakup of the AT&T monopoly, even after  adjusting for inflation, [her] telephone cost $2.30 for each dollar paid in 1984. And that was without any charges for long-distance calls."
> 
> Not only have prices increased, phone service providers now charge fees for everything, including options that used to be free, such as directory service. Bills have also become increasingly complicated. A poll of 1,000 people found that only three people actually knew how to read their statement. That means virtually no one understands their phone bill in its entirety.


.....

> Over the course of the last 20 years, nearly $500 billion has been collected by the telecom companies to (allegedly) bring America into the 21st century with an "Information Superhighway," says Johnston. That works out ot $3,000 per household to have access to high-speed Internet.
> 
> But America did not get what it was promised and much of the country will never get fiber optic lines...

.....

> "The companies essentially have a business model that is antithetical to economic growth," he says. "Profits go up if they can provide slow Internet at super high prices."

.....

> However, as Australia is now doing, you could invest heavily in a core fiber network that brings tremendous high speed access everywhere... and then let service providers compete at the service level, rather than the infrastructure level.



-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
T: +61 2 61402408  M: +61 404072753
mailto:kim at holburn.net  aim://kimholburn
skype://kholburn - PGP Public Key on request 







More information about the Link mailing list