Bill Moyers: Why U.S. Internet Access is Slow, Costly and Unfair

[marmar]

http://vimeo.com/59236702


Susan Crawford on Why U.S. Internet Access is Slow, Costly and Unfair
February 8, 2013


Susan Crawford, former special assistant to President Obama for science, technology and innovation, and author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in the New Gilded Age, joins Bill to discuss how our government has allowed a few powerful media conglomerates to put profit ahead of the public interest — rigging the rules, raising prices, and stifling competition. As a result, Crawford says, all of us are at the mercy of the biggest business monopoly since Standard Oil in the first Gilded Age a hundred years ago.

“The rich are getting gouged, the poor are very often left out, and this means that we’re creating, yet again, two Americas, and deepening inequality through this communications inequality,” Crawford tells Bill.


http://billmoyers.com/segment/susan-crawford-on-why-u-s-internet-access-is-slow-costly-and-unfair/

[Sherman A1]

1. K&R

[xchrom]

2. Du rec. Nt

[BlueCaliDem]

3. I completely agree.

I have an internet speed of 12 mbps and I believed that was kick ass. Now I've learned from our Dutch friends (during a strenuous Skype session) that they have a 50 mbps internet speed that isn't even offered here in the U.S.!

AT&T Uverse offers 12 mbps, 18 mbps, and 24 mbps (max) and they charge an arm and a leg for it! I believe someone here at DU claimed that Denmark or Switzerland (can't remember) has 100 mbps standard!

[Chakab]

7. Depends on what part of the US you live in.

Here on Long Island, the infrastructure is great. I get over 100mbps with Optimum Ultra.

[BlueCaliDem]

10. You lucky DAWG!

Mine read

Sad, ain't it? Oh well...

That said, thanks for the info. I didn't know there were differences in different parts of the country.

[timdog44]

24. How about this.

Download - 4.61
Upload - 0.64

Its disgusting. I go back to the thing I have mentioned several times here on Democratic Underground. The game Monopoly only has one winner and the rest of are weiners. (I hope that is not offensive)

[SteveG]

28. I'm on Mediacom

[URL=http://www.speedtest.net][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[druidity33]

31. ever hear of Hughes Net?

that's Satellite internet. At $75 a month it's pretty much my only option here in rural MA. Also, they limit my bandwidth to 250MB per 24 hr period... Dialup is looking appealing right now...

[MADem]

47. No DSL in your neck of the woods? nt

[druidity33]

61. Phone lines are too old...

apparently they won't support DSL. We still get the "party line" in town occasionally. You pick up the phone and can faintly here a neighbors conversation... ugh. No cel service here either. Our community is currently working on municipally owned fiber optic, but it'll take a few years.

[MADem]

70. That is a real pity--so your choices are dial-up and

cruise-ship-quality satellite? A bummer, indeed.

[LiberalFighter]

29. Damn!!

[Wednesdays]

34. Oklahoma City, Cox Cable...FWIW

Not too terrible. But isn't it also influenced by what kind of machine and/or system you're running?

[ohheckyeah]

45. Did you know that there's a rule

that the person with the highest internet speed has to buy hearts for everyone else?

[newthinking]

51. And you likely pay too much for it

You are getting what my friends in the second world now get. And your speed is rare in the US.

First world economies are looking at speeds 5x that in the very near future (multimedia). We are falling behind.

[Initech]

58. 100 MB/S??? Wow! I have Time Warner and for internet it's great. I get like 60 MB/S.

[MattSh]

59. This is what my $12 a month gets me.

Notice this is Kiev, Ukraine. Not exactly the best place in the world for quality infrastructure. Or high-speed internet. But it ranks so much higher than much of the USA. Which is sad. Real sad.

And this is actually a slow day. I often get speeds 50% better. And this isn't even their best package. However, it is supposed to be 60Mb/s, a rate I've never gotten close to.

[malthaussen]

63. You're three times as fast and 1/4 the price of me.

And I live in Philadelphia.

-- Mal

[emmadoggy]

78. 4X faster than my speed and half of my price. nt

[Paula Sims]

88. More reason to want to go back home. . . (Ukraine)

First waving to my Ukrainian brothers & sisters (Брати!)

Second, I pay almost $50 for DSL and here's what I get 5.17 download and .65 upload and I'm only a few hundred feed from the service provider!!! GGGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRR.

Paula

[malthaussen]

62. Using an LI server, I get:

Which is still a lot faster than the 300 baud modem I started with in 1980.

Note we use the same server for this test. I'm in Philly, though.

-- Mal

[emmadoggy]

74. Yeah, also notice that it says

"faster than 97% of the US". So you are one of the select few who have access to that.

[Chakab]

84. I know that this type of service is exetremely rare in the US.

Last edited Sun Feb 10, 2013, 05:33 PM - Edit history (1)

I was just pointing out that there are a handful of places and ISPs in the country that aren't behind the curve when it comes to Internet service. Optimum also has WIFI hotspots all over Long Island and in the city for customers.

[emmadoggy]

85. Do you mind me asking how much that service

costs you?

Just wondering if you also pay an ultra-premium price to have it. Thanks.

As you can see from the rest of us who have posted, you are very lucky to even have the OPTION of such premium service.

[Chakab]

86. The exact cost is complicated

because there are discounts based the type of service that you have. According to cablevision's website. Basic internet service, Optimum Online, is $49.95 a month, and Optimum Ultra is another $50. There are two tiers of service between basic and Ultra.

I pay about $280 a month for a premium cable package with multi-room DVR service, a phone line and internet service. I actually started paying less when I added the VOIP service.

[Autumn Colors]

82. I loved Optimum

I used to live in Cablevision/Optimum's region here in CT and they were great. After moving, I'm now in Charter's territory. Because I have a business account (faster response time during outages), I pay more for my service than what Optimum Ultra would cost ... yet this is my speed:

[djean111]

4. I used to work for a phone company as a programmer.

They dribble out speeds and services a little at a time so they can charge more.

Will be interesting to see if Google high speed changes the current price gouging, but if Google started at $70 a month (what I read somewhere), than I have no hope for that.

edited to add - I just used SpeedTest and I have 82.34 mbps - FIOS fiber optic.

[Aquavit]

55. I used to work for an ISP...

And their pricing was astronomical. If you wanted 1 Mb up/down service, it was $60/mo + $500 to install. If you wanted 5Mb up/down service, you could expect to spend close to $600/mo - but they'd cut you a deal on install and only charge $100!

[xmas74]

66. 70 is the price for their high speed

But you can get a basic lower speed for free up to seven years.

A friend is getting connected and I believe that's the rate. The 70 includes installation and is under contract. To get the free is $25 a month for one year, which pays the installation fees, and then free unless you choose to upgrade.

[lpbk2713]

5. Nothing changes but the changes with the telcos.

They have been running the same scam for years. The only difference is they are now doing it in the internet age.

[bvar22]

6. Can I buy a heart for Bill Moyers?

One of the very few journalists left in our sad country.

[aquart]

17. You know, that's something you might want to mention to Skinner.

Maybe not hearts or stars, but a whole other symbol of admiration for a whole other fundraiser.

[secondvariety]

8. I'm going to have to read this guy's book...

http://www.amazon.com/dp/1591843588

[NBachers]

9. And their signals cross through our public airspace, ground, and rights-of-way

[upi402]

11. Bill Moyers is a national treasure

Deep respect.

It was Bill Clinton that did the Telecommunications Act.
(And NAFTA)

Now this man opens his mouth and people still swoon to the bullshit.

[aquart]

13. Yes. Which is a problem for those of us who wish to vote for Hillary.

[upi402]

23. Hillary promoted NAFTA and was on WalMart's board

I want a Democrat to support, heart & soul.

How do they lose their way?

[aquart]

90. Well, sometimes they grow and learn.

Or is everyone ONLY their past?

[ProfessionalLeftist]

21. He certainly is. This is a great piece

His usually are. He covers topics the rest of the media won't cover and he covers them in ways they won't. He's a true journalist.

[DeSwiss]

44. +1000

[aquart]

12. Privatization is NOT in the public interest.

We will forever regret not hanging sufficient CEOs.

[EastKYLiberal]

14. Other countries made major public investments. Correlation? OFC. nt

[Egalitarian Thug]

43. BS. Clinton handed Verizon and AT&T billions of our money. They stole it and walked

away, and he let them. It's not our investment, it's our government letting them steal with impunity.

[ReRe]

15. Bill Moyers re Interrnet

Marking to come back to. In the middle of ballgame at the moment...

[gulliver]

16. Rural Internet access would be a good issue for Dems

We need a full court press on free high-speed Internet access...urban and rural.

[Overseas]

37. +1

[libtodeath]

87. x1000

[Jackpine Radical]

89. Abso-fucken-lutely!

Along with a major effort to get better medical care including mental health care into rural areas.

And no, in the interest of heading off this particular distraction, the latter has nothing to do with guns.

[Elwood P Dowd]

18. I'm out in the country stuck with Earthlink (AT&T)

at 1.06 Mbps. Pure crap, but unless I want to be ripped off by Charter Cable I'm stuck.

[libtodeath]

19. Because a basic need is once again hostage to a capitalist profit

sickening.

[INdemo]

20. Well what would one expect....

we are the only country in the world whose postal system is about to crash..So why should we have a decent cheap internet access?
Our infrastructure is owned by those that are owned by those that own the politicians.

[marmar]

30. Yep. And it's going to be the death of us.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

22. As long as the US = Capitalism then we will be at the mercy of greed above all else.

The really FUNNY thing is the idiots in charge STILL act like nobody here knows things outside of the US are better unless they say so.

[rickford66]

25. just ran a test

Frontier DSL fiber optic line. 3.14 Mbps download and 0.32 Mbps upload. Better than dialup I guess. When I stream The Daily Show or Colbert it buffers every few seconds sometimes.

[OldDem2012]

26. We're in a high-tech area and this is what I get with broadband....

You'd think with all of the PhD types working at NASA and the Redstone Arsenal labs nearby that there would be a bigger demand for better connection speeds.

[corkhead]

32. contrast yours with this:

I pay $80 per month for this. I live out in the sticks and have a small phone company that requires a $30 per month pots line to get the $50 per month "high speed" DSL

[OldDem2012]

33. Wow. After seeing yours, I feel pretty fortunate. nt.

[GoCubsGo]

64. Right about on par with this hellhole where I live

And, those assholes just raised our rates.



Such are the joys of living in a republican cesspool. The idiots here don't understand, and they don't care. They're like a bunch of freakin' frogs sitting in a pot of water, and they're cheering on the person who keeps turning up the heat underneath them. I really wish I could find my way out of here.

[savebigbird]

71. Hey! Our download speeds match!

Weeeeeird!!!

[mrdmk]

39. I really wish we did not deal with Time Warner and their BS polices...

Yes they do pay attention to your neighbors. Check out the comparison of the download and upload speeds between our connections



I need to send graphics files around town. Driving there would also most be faster!

[Curmudgeoness]

41. Did you notice that you are "faster than 75% of US"?

That makes this even more frightening.

I can't even watch videos.....if there is something really important to watch, I do that at work where they have the best of the best for our area----and my computer gets 15.45 download there. (I tested it because I was worried that it was my computer.)

[MindMover]

27. An oligarchy run by capitalists ....

Last edited Sun Feb 17, 2013, 01:43 PM - Edit history (2)

Very fortunate that we are not paying for the air we breathe ...

[Wounded Bear]

35. K & R

Must see video for everyone.

[Overseas]

36. K&R. I'd love to see her as chair of the FCC!

[MinM]

38. On The Media had a good segment w/David Cay Johnston on this...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10954093

[Honeycombe8]

40. Well, our govt needs to do something about this. EVERYONE in our country should

have cheap or free access to the internet. They have it in Europe. Cheap and much faster than what we have. Free market?

[MrMickeysMom]

42. Sensible Oversight...

Absolutely ... This made sense, and to think that we've arrived at the fascist state where those who CAN afford can continue. It's an affront to democracy to continue the way we've gone.

Susan Crawford, Mr. President..... Susan Crawford!

[Egalitarian Thug]

46. Sign the White House petition to appoint Susan Crawford to the FCC.

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/appoint-susan-crawford-fcc-chairman/73mtqt0q

[snot]

48. +100!

[Egalitarian Thug]

50. Spread it around. n/t

[BainsBane]

49. B

I still hate Comcast.

[newthinking]

52. I have friends in 2cd world locations with faster speeds lol

no joking.

[area51]

57. Commies have faster internet speeds than the US?

Maybe N. Korea, Cuba? Communist countries are 2nd world countries.

[LeftInTX]

53. This is so needed in rural areas.

I've got TWC broadband in a major urban area, it's expensive. I feel bad for people who don't have a broadband option.

When my son was living at my mother in law's, he actually used his cell phone. He would hook up his cell phone to his laptop and was able to watch Netflix and the whole bit. It was through some company in addition to the cell phone provider.

[Egalitarian Thug]

54. Glad that somebody that people will actually listen to is finally talking about this.

We are and have been paying way too much for shitty service for over a decade. We are a two generations behind the rest of the world and are still imagining that we are number one.

[Chisox08]

56. The reason why internet speeds are so slow and expensive is the fact they don't have competition,

where else are you going to go. In most places you have two or three providers if that. I live in Chicago and were I live I only have three crappy choices AT&T, Comcast and Clear. I hope Google expands the Fiber service nationwide soon, and hopefully it will drive the price down of everyone else.

[MindMover]

93. Many years ago in a land far away, competition meant better service ...

Basically this is a myth perpetrated by supply side economically thinking people ...

Unfortunately we have moved way past this paradigm and have entered into the millisecond paradigm ...

[VenusRising]

60. Time Warner Cable...

[bonniebgood]

65. Its the future of this "Exceptional America" where Our Government

allow private cooperations to control the public interest for profit. Why would one need INTERNET when the politician/cooperations want Get rid of Dept of Education, EPA, Post Office
and All communication between the people who pays for it? Three students neighbors stopped by my house to use my computer to fill out an 'online' application for fucking McDonald's.

You need a damn computer to sign a petition. In order to sign a petition one need to "create an account" with a password.
30mb speed in Alabama and we pay a bundle. I cant afford it yet i could not survive here without it. I need Charter to do research for my job and Verizion via smartphone to stream progressive radio cost me over 250.00 per month.
What a fucking rip-off. F the corporate Clintons. It might take 30 years to undo Glass Stegal, 1996 telecommunication act
and NAFTA.

[Doctor_J]

67. Change "Internet Access" to "Health Care" and you have the same story

everything is the US has been handed over to a very few blood-sucking 1%ers who are beyond any laws. I am optimistic that before I shuffle off we will have our revenge

[Grantuspeace]

68. We have been paying an extra $10 a month to use our fancy 4g phones on a 3g network.

We have been told 4g service is under construction and just around the corner for years. And if we are lucky enough to have a 4g network, many carriers throttle speeds as data usage increases. We are all getting screwed.

[Gin]

69. I thought all those xtra fees

I paid over the years were to bring access to rural areas. Guess its another revenue source we suckers provide thinking its actually going to help folks in rural areas get connected.

[tclark0404]

72. Small Town Iowa

Terril Iowa. I pay $172.03 a month which includes phone service and basic cable package (HD included).

[mikeysnot]

73. I recommend David Kay Johnson's book Fine Print

Chapter five - "In twenty-ninth place and fading fast"..

We are being screwed by the telecons and politicons.

Privatized profits, socialized costs.

[Progressive dog]

75. Cablevision speed

[Cobalt Violet]

80. More rightwing talking points.

Why am I not surprised?

[hunter]

83. Oh, I'd love to.

Maybe on those public airwaves our dear leaders sold to AT&T, Verizon, and other corporate giants.

Personally, I think the Federal Government should nationalize these bastards and blanket the nation with free high speed wireless internet.

It would be pretty much the same economic model as our highway and road system.

Corporations would make money selling infrastructure and internet devices, not by renting bandwidth to users, in the same way that corporations make money bidding and contracting for highway and road infrastructure and selling cars.

[me b zola]

77. I think sometimes my posts come across as anti-technology

...when in fact I'm concerned that without pubic discussion about new technologies and how they impact our lives, these advances will work to widen the gap between the haves and have-nots.

I am pro technology and advancement in general. I just want everybody included.

[emmadoggy]

79. Small town, Iowa.

[URL=http://www.speedtest.net][IMG][/IMG][/URL]


Paying for 7m service. This is as close as I usually get. I pay roughly $80/month for phone (local & long distance) and internet. Internet accounts for roughly $25 of that amount.

[awoke_in_2003]

81. Couple this with the fact...

that we are breaking primary education by defunding it, and putting secondary education out of the reach of most people due to cost. Then toss in a big helping of the rise of religion, and we are heading back to the dark ages.

[octothorpe]

91. Study about world wide broadband speeds...

http://www.neowin.net/news/average-broadband-speeds-in-us-now-at-67-mbps

[phylny]

92. I live in rural Virginia, and this is the absolute best I can do. As you can see, it sucks.

[link:|