[UFO Chicago] might be a bit late to tonight's meeting

[Jordan Bettis]

Richard Lynch said:

> We are chewing up bandwidth faster than we can create it -- And the
> video/audio services rolling out will tip that over into a "crisis" --
> where some of the business who cannot deliver their promised
> bandwidth, will find themselves in deep doo-doo.

1) What company delivers their promised bandwidth?

2) What company has so inept a legal staff that they will be
   "in deep doo-doo" if they don't deliver their promised bandwidth?

3) What happed to all that fiber that went into the ground in the
   90s only to remain dark when demand never appeared and wavelength-
   division multiplexing got implemented?

I think the deal is that the telcom companies have price-warred the
bit moving business so low (Thanks Ameritech! :D) that they can't make
money off of it any longer and are looking for some scam to make it
profitable again without upsetting their interests.

The easiest way to do that is work like the cellphone companies:
make the billing so complicated that consumers can't figure out 1)
what they're paying and 2) if they'd get a better deal from someone
else. Then they'll be able to hide all sorts of fees and gotchas in
the pricing structure and make the bank.

Net neutrality will, at the very least, mean that the pricing
structure stays as transparent as it is today. From the business
side, that means a particular cost per bit. For the consumer that
typically means a flat monthly bill that comes with some vague
insinuations as to service quality.

The idea that the Internet is about to "fill up" or get "bogged down"
displays little faith in the ability of the market to provide
solutions (especially coming from forbes). If bandwidth really
gets tight on the internet because increasing demand, then
the cost will go up, and then either supply will increase or
demand will plateau. But at least people will understand what they're
getting, and what they're paying.

BTW: Word on the street is that there may be a laptop at the meeting
demoing Plan 9 From Bell Labs, but you didn't hear that from me.

-- 
Jordan Bettis -- Chicago Il.
  <http://neighborhoods.chicago.il.us>
    Photographs of Life in the Neighborhoods of Chicago
  <http://hafd.org/~jordanb/> Pretentious Weblog