Re: No pain, no pair gain?

In article <kXJcg.91124$dW3.76808@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
notthisjoergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx says...
Hello Keith,


The TV part of my bill (all the channels) is about $130/month. ...


Ouch! We have an antenna and the cost is, well, zilch.

Not my choice (OTOH, you get zilch). ;-)

My cell phone is $40/month (two for $60 with taxes and...) for 700
minutes (of which in a normal month I may use 10;) with unlimited
nights and weekends. I wouldn't consider an Internet connection
via cell though.


With that low usage I'd look into Virgin Mobile. That is what I am
using. 25c/min the first 10 minutes per day, then 10c. Or 35c/day and
it's 10c for all minutes. Plus they let you switch.

UNlimited weekends and nights. Our family all lives 1000 miles
East of here so nights aren't a big problem. We can talk for hours
without paying an additional dime.

Why roaming charges? I get no roaming charges unless I leave the
country (or get too close to Canuckistan).


Some carriers (like Virgin and yours) don't charge them. Others do and
it often comes as a surprise out of the blue to people.

WHy would *anyone* pay roaming fees if they're not moving from
their house?

Ok, we have choices:

Phone (last mile): Missy Bell
Cell
Cable/Vonage


Ours: Missy Bell
Cell (but not a lot)

Missy Bell was $48/month, by the time we paid for usage. One cell
phone was cheaper, regardless of LD. Two are *far* cheaper
including LD. VerizonWireless, BTW.

Long Distance: Missy Bell
Mom
Cell
10s of 1010 companies
1000s of pay-per cards
Cable/Vonage


LD is never a problem. Thanks to MCI cards at Costco it's 3c/min here,
or everywhere for that matter. International is another issue but now
MCI has a card for that, too. Wish they had a combo card with decent rates.

Free here. When one's family is all out of state... Even my son
lives in NH, but does have a VT phone number.

TV: Cable
Satellite


Same here, but both expensive. Once they really turn off the analog TV
stations it'll lock many people in because the standard that has been
picked is supposedly not very tolerant for multi-path (which is a really
serious problem out here). Not us, we'd just quit TV altogether.

What analog? What over-the-air? Ok, they exist, but I know *NO
ONE* who actually receives TV off-air. They simply don't exist
here.

Internet: 100s of ISPs
DSL (often several choices)
Cable
Satellite (downlink)
Satellite (bi-di)


The dial-up ISPs aren't too useful for biz. Too slow. We have DSL and
acble but cable isn't competivive for folks like us who don't use TV
much. Satellite is much more expensive out here, only used when there is
absolutely no chance to get anything else.

I have a dial-up ISP for traveling and my email. But that wasn't
the issue. There *ARE* choices. Again, cable Internet service
costs $5 more per month for those without cable TV. Are you saying
that you run your business via dial up? Yes, satellite Internet
service is expensive, but is the same price everywhere. You're not
contracting with the local company. You *choose* not to buy their
service because it is too expensive. Ok.

Sorry, I don't see any monopoly here.

It's crumbling but there are quite a few people here who are de-facto
stuck with DSL and with their phone line. Unless they are willing to
subscribe to other services they don't really need and end up with a
grand total that was higher than before.

Defacto <> monopoly. Because you have the cheapest available
service dos *NOT* mean that you're held hostage by some evil
monopoly. You *DO* have a choice. Because that choice doesn't
make economic sense WRT to what you already have doesn't mean
you're at the mercy of some evil monopoly. The fact is that there
*is* choice, and far more than there was ten (or thirty) years ago.

--
Keith
.

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