Privatization of Federal powers?, What precisely does the gov't do? Options

[hyzmarca]

I find that those companies that own the lines provide substantially better service than those companies which simply have access to the lines and do so at substantially less cost. In the case of phone service, independent local providers charge three times as much as the local big telecom, don't provide any special features, and it literally takes up to two weeks for them to fix any problem while the big telecom usually fixes them within hours. In the case of internet access, independent providers also charge three times as much for slower service and always oversell their lines so that no one actually gets what they paid for, while the big telecoms have enough bandwidth to actually let people with unlimited plans at a set rate have throughput at that rate 24/7 without making complaints about oxymoronic crap like "abusive usage" and without throttling P2P protocols.

In my experience, there just isn't any point to the independents, though I will admit that the laughable competition that they provide might be a precipitating factor in the absurdly great service provided by local phone companies. I imagine internet telephony has more to do with it, however.

[kzt]

Part of it is also just bad management. For example, I saw Eastern Airlines Mechanics strikes used as the example of "I'll see you in Hell" negotiating strategies in a business negotiations book. There was so much distrust and bad blood that the mechanics preffered to kill the company rather then compromise. Delta is another, it used to be the best airline to work at, with great labor-management relations. It's now about the worst for both.

But I feel it does take some special skill to not make money when almost every flight you fly is full.

[Kagetenshi]

[hyzmarca]

My experience is with Windstream, a Tier 2 network that serves the parts of the South where it isn't terribly unusual for men to knock up their own daughters. Despite being the only game in a decidedly one-horse town, they have perfect service with no restrictions other than an one-year lock in for people who get the free modem/router.

And Comcast is just run by a bunch of jackasses from what I understand of it.

[kzt]

[Kagetenshi]

Actually, they have two options: the two you mentioned that are not "kick offenders".

I guess "stop advertising unlimited transfer and hope they stay afloat long enough for most of their customers to have come in under the new advertised service" is also a possibility. Making use of what you were told you would get when you paid for it doesn't make you any kind of "offender".

~J

[kzt]

Well, yeah. The comcast lameness that they won't provide the actual level where they start getting annoyed with you is kind of stupid.

But it's essentially an example of the "Tragedy of the Commons."

[hyzmarca]

They could also lay down enough wire to fully meet demand without raising prices, a much more reasonable solution.

[kzt]

We found that students could essentially use up all the bandwidth we would throw at them. After trying several cycles of upgrading the pipe we gave up at 1.5Gb/sec (I1 & I2 combined). So we greatly limit the students bandwidth for PtP during the day and somewhat less at night.

[Kagetenshi]

[hyzmarca]

[Snow_Fox]

To touch on something no one has, local governments control the streets. Think that's not a big deal? Heck think of the affect of shoppers trying to go to your mall/archology if the street in front of it is a construction zone and maybe we, the town, haven't really got a shcedule to when this will be fixed and I know we're half blocking the street with out bulldozer that's been parked there for 3 days but we'll get round to it and...what's that? Oh, you'd like to make a contribuiton to the mayor's re-election//education/homless fund? ....

[nezumi]

The airlines example is a mixed example. The truth is, taking a company and turning it from basically running like a government (fixed, near-guaranteed income) to cut-throat competition. I guarantee, if the government office I work in suddenly had to compete with private industry, we would crash and burn. I notice that while some of the big, older companies seem to be struggling, newer companies like Southwest seem to be doing very, very well, even after 9/11.

Also worth noting, at one point in the US fire protection was a subscription service. You pay the fire department, they stick something on your house. If you have a fire, they put it out. If you don't have the sticker, they just control the fire to keep it from spreading to neighbors (which is safer anyway).