Few people debate the fact that all of us use the phone at home, in business and on-the-go more than we did even ten years ago. Few people argue with the notion that we will be using one or more of these to an even greater degree in the future. We probably won't stop at Blockbuster, but we may 'order' a movie feed from Blockbuster. Those same phone calls may become video calls. Demand for bandwidth is a given!
The industry is facing the death throws of a 100-year old legacy, copper-based network. This centrally-planned, government subsidized relic is currently operated by a relative handful of monopolists or executives from the monopolists' ranks. Their rule is coming to an end. Some of them don't even know it.
Replacing that old network and its kings and lords will be a modern, continuously upgradable fiber optic network that passes IP packets end-to-end. Running that network will be a group of people who understand Moore's Law, rapid time-to-market and the concept of price-elasticity-of-demand. They're anything but monopolists!
I had an experience similar to the one mentioned below when one of our daughters phoned home from Boston while dancing with the Boston Ballet for a month or two. Little did we know we were facing a $700+ bill until after it arrived. We had done our homework in advance, fortunately, had documentation for the rates we had been quoted and got adjustments made to the bill. The relief was not easy to get nor was it immediate, but in an age of $0.045 per minute long distance rates, $700+ was not going to be paid!
Other than the airline industry, where you can be arrested for inquiring about the sobriety of the pilots, no industry treats its customers the way the telecom industry has. Better times are on their way, though!
SprintPCS Nightmare. I'm broke. I barely have enough money to get by through the next month. And my "royalty" check I received this weekend was only 36.00 - I was expecting 1000.00. Still, I can manage. I can manage...until today. Don't worry... [Burningbird]
