Boy, if that doesn't make everything crystal clear. Pack everyone into a pressure cooker so they're compelled to do what AOL wants them to do, but can't legally force them to do. Like billing tens of thousands months beyond their disconnect dates! Kick culpability all the way down to the sad sacks on the shop floor -- hey, we only asked him to stuff 60 pounds of shit into a 40 pound bag, it's not our fault the seams burst! Bastards.
About market (non)competitiveness in the US -- here's a timely article that makes me despair:
Pretty much the fastest consumer broadband in the world is the 160-megabit-per-second service offered by J:Com, the largest cable company in Japan. Here’s how much the company had to invest to upgrade its network to provide that speed: $20 per home passed.
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By contrast, Verizon is spending an average of $817 per home passed to wire neighborhoods for its FiOS fiber optic network and another $716 for equipment and labor in each home that subscribes, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.
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The experience in Japan suggests that the major cable systems in the United States might be able to increase the speed of their broadband service by five to 10 times right away. They might not need to charge much more for it than they do now and they’d still make as much money.
The cable industry here uses the same technology as J:Com. And several vendors said that while the prices Mr. Fries quoted were on the low side, most systems can be upgraded for no more than about $100 per home, including a new modem. Moreover, the monthly cost of bandwidth to connect a home to the Internet is minimal, executives say.
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The industry is worried that by offering 100 Mbps, they are opening Pandora’s box, he said. Everyone will be able to get video on the Internet, and then competition will bring the price for the broadband down from $80 to $60 to $40.
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/03/the-cost-to-offer-the-worlds-fastest-broadband-20-per-home
A recap of my Japan experience: In the 90s Japan was a backwater. ISPs were split between 33/56K dialup offerings (and I couldn't get better than single-digits speeds at any price because of the Korean War vintage wiring in my house). ISDN was outlandishly priced.
Phone service was metered, 10 yen per 3 minutes, roughly 2 bucks an hour. For an extra fee, charges could be lowered to 10 yen per 5 minutes. There was also another plan for an extra 2000 yen -- you could designate 2 local phone numbers and they would be unmetered between 11pm and 8am. Guess when I did all my surfing.
My ISP had ridiculously small monthly time caps, so I had 2 accounts, switching over in the middle of the month. It was depressing. My online friends were all getting broadband and could have realtime discussions, while my posts were like intermittent eruptions of time-delayed noise.
Late 1999, some gov't ministers began making noises about the importance of connectivity to Japan's economic future.
In 2001, I get a flyer stuffed in my door. DSL is here, 1.5mbs! I streaked out, signed up, and 3 days later was zooming on the internet. Huzzah!
6 months later, we've got 8mbs, you want in? Hell yeah! Gazoooom!
6 months after that, 8mbs is now our base tier, so we're moving you up to 12mbs. Arigato!
6 months again, 24mbs is coming, sign you up? Okay.
6 months, we're rolling out the fiber, 48mbs. No thanks, I'm good.
A year later, how does 100mbs sound? No really, I'm good.
Now I'm back in the USA! USA! USA! (where at least I know I'm freeeeee) on a dodgy 5mbs connection, beholden to a money-sucking no-service behemoth, hoping another money-sucking no-service behemoth will move in and rescue me. Meanwhile, coffee shop connections in Tokyo are 100mbs and you can get 160mbs to your home.
It makes me weep.