Re: symmetric vs. asymmetric [was: Verizon Policy Statement on Net Neutrality]

[Miles Fidelman <mfidelman () meetinghouse net>]

Michael Thomas wrote:
> On 02/28/2015 08:59 AM, Mike Hammett wrote:
> > 20 years ago was into AOL's prime, so yes they did.
> >
> > Great, let's re-evaluate the system when demand necessitates it. For 
> > many systems, it's literally as simple as changing how many channels 
> > are allocated to what directions.
> >
> > By that logic, we would have been running 486s with 32 gigs of RAM 
> > because some people today use that much. *shakes head* Obviously the 
> > majority of the dissent here works with OPM.
>
> The point is that the incumbents (= telephants) at the time looked at 
> even the
> minuscule AOL user base with disdain saying that their market share 
> was irrelevant.
> Even into the early 2000's these same guys thought that voice was the 
> only thing
> that really mattered because the new fangled internet users were 
> outliers from their
> pots bread and butter. We now know those outliers were important. 
> Being dismissive
> of them is dangerous.

Actually, I think the incumbents do get it, at this point - at least 
Verizon does.  FIOS is a pretty nice offering, and they offer some 
pretty high speeds, both up and down.  It's just that they've stopped 
their buildout with the large markets; but they've been a power behind 
the state level anti-municipal broadband laws.  Kind of annoying that, 
in areas where they have no intention of building out, they want to 
stand in the way of folks who want to do it themselves.

Miles Fidelman

--
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice.
In practice, there is.   .... Yogi Berra