Re: AT&T's 1993 "You Will" Ads -- no thanks to ATT!

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Adam L Beberg <beberg () mithral com>
Date: August 25, 2007 10:28:56 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] Re:     AT&T's 1993 "You Will" Ads -- no thanks to  
ATT!

The problem is, AT&T was right, there is no money in shuffling bits  
around, it's a commodity that you can only charge anything at all for  
because of geographic monopolies. Minus that, you converge on  
something that's free with a $7 coffee, or even free in the US cities  
that haven't banned it yet.

Ask any ISP how they make their money, and they will say they charge  
people for equipment and a tech support contract. The bits are free  
to the user, and a sunk cost of doing business. If you call them for  
support, that wipes out months of profit from your monthly fee.

We really are in a world now with wireless where the bandwidth is so  
cheap it doesn't matter anymore. What does matter is freedom to use  
it. To not be blocked from visiting sites by Cisco routers in China.  
To not have your copyright violation slowed by Comcast along with  
your Linux distribution. To not have all your traffic routed to the  
NSA by AT&T.

As for Apple, they know this too. You can pick up a phone with all  
the iPhone features and 50 more in China, made by the same people  
that make the iPhone no doubt. Just stand around Japan and wait for a  
teenage girl to discard one because it's an "old people" phone. But  
Apple is coolness itself. The deal with AT&T is mostly due to the  
dark ages status of wireless in the US, and the fact that AT&T is the  
only one with wide coverage, so they have Apple and their customers  
over a barrel. Didn't we break them up? We live in the cellular world  
of Japan in 1997, and the physical world of falling bridges. It's a  
national embarrassment to everyone but our leaders.

Oh, and the iPhone is unlocked with a wire, will NOT be permanently  
unlocked with software only, and certainly not worth dealing with  
AT&T over because they just don't get it. My friend just got a 30  
page $200 bill, not green or correct.

--
Adam L. Beberg
http://www.mithral.com/~beberg/


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