angrymnk wrote:
Jophiel wrote:
angrymnk wrote:
"Whatever happened to being ISP only ( as opposed to being ISP/media conglomerate/waffle house)"
Media conglomerates own the means of broadband transmission. Until we all get a separate fiber optic hookup or force open usage of the existing infrastructure, them's the breaks.
Back in the day you had independent ISPs because we were all using phone lines and they were accessible to everyone with a phone jack. You don't get the same pushing the information over cable.
So you are saying it is just a question of infrastructure?
I wouldn't say "just" a question of infrastructure. It costs a ton of cash to run high speed cables to everyone's home. Those who spend the money doing that are going to tend to want to get the money back in some way, and while charging for the "service" of an internet connection is good, if they can also get people to pay for content, that's even better.
Honestly though, I'm not sure the heyday was that much of a heyday. There wasn't a whole lot of content back in the days on independent ISPs. You get a hell of a lot better deal today than you did back in the early 90s. And sure, the ISPs tend to use tactics to get you to use their services, but that's not exactly new. Long before folks were running web browsers, the phone company required you to use their services at their rates, with zero choices available (you lived in area A, you got phone company B, with services C, and cost options fixed to those services, and that was it). Ditty for cable company. You had one choice. They provided just the packages they offered. You didn't have an option to just use them as a service provider to the internet and get content elsewhere.
I think sometimes people forget that the ISPs of today started as exclusive direct content providers first (well, the phone not so much, but the concept is similar). There's still nothing preventing you from using your cable or phone company purely for internet access, and then getting your phone, email, video, gaming, whatever services from other sources on the net. And at vastly better price to performance levels than you could back in the day. Frankly, I kinda wonder what the heck people are complaining about. Is it really that you feel like you're getting a bad deal? Or is there some innate need to attack an industry for daring to profit in the process of providing you with an product that is literally 100 times better than it was 20 years ago?
I just feel that in the grand scheme of things to be upset about in the world around us, this places pretty far down the list.
Edited, Nov 5th 2014 7:06pm by gbaji