[Chapter-delegates] Why is ISOC is doing almost nothing to bring affordable Internet to America

[David Vyorst]

It's always good to see more competition and a freer market in Eastern
Europe than in Washington, DC!

On Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 3:47 PM, Veni Markovski <veni at veni.com> wrote:

>  Colleagues,
> when I moved to NY 7 years ago, I was shocked to see there are only 2 ISPs
> for 7 million people.
> There are 2000 ISPs in Bulgaria, for the same number of people.
>
> And prices? It costs $ 15 (one, five) for 100 Mbps, or 1000 Mbps (1 Gbps)
> in Bulgaria. And it costs $ 50 / 3 Mbps in NY. We used these in a number of
> publications, and interviews
>
> Come on!
>
> I blogged about it:
> Net Neutrality talk with the FTC <http://blog.veni.com/?p=155>
> best,
> veni
>
>
>  On 12/20/2012 15:41, Paul Brigner wrote:
>
> Hi Dave,
>
>  Thanks for your comments.  Many members in the NY Chapter have raised
> this issue with me.   I will forward your note to our Public Policy team
> and start a discussion internally on how ISOC can work on this topic.
>
>  Best regards,
> Paul Brigner
>
> Regional Bureau Director, North America
> Internet Society
>
> "The Internet is for Everyone"
>
>
>
>  On Dec 20, 2012, at 2:51 PM, Dave Burstein <daveb at dslprime.com> wrote:
>
> On the NY ISOC list, Thomas writes
>
>  "Here's the vision thing. What would have happened if I'd have said
> something like,
>
>   * ISOC-NY advocates for universal access to a quality Net experience
>     for every New Yorker. We believe every resident should have Internet
>     access with enough speed that it enables them to fully participate
>     in deciding upon and receiving government services."
>
>  I just spent two weeks in Dubai where ISOC had strong opinions on how
> poor countries should bring down costs. I wanted to cry out "Physician heal
> thyself" because the increases in U.S. costs lately have been
> unconscionable. Verizon's fees start at $55 as far as I can tell (only 1
> megabit!)and for most in NYC (FiOS territory) the minimum is over $78. The
> standard service at Time Warner cable is $58. I just doublechecked those
> prices with the companies.
>
>      That's much higher than the $20-45 that was a common  fee in years
> past. Verizon by most measures is up 50-100%, Time Warner 20%. All this at
> a time the cost to deliver the service is going down. (Routers, modems,
> capex of the companies, even support, as I've reported elsewhere).
>
>     Before that, I was at ECTA Brussels where speaker after speaker
> pointed out European prices are often half what the Americans charge for
> similar. That's slightly exaggerated but the gap is clear.
>
>     It's time to start working - hard - to make sure the Internet is
> affordable to Americans. Otherwise, our advice to the Africans is hollow.
>
>     How do we turn around ISOC to start doing something about prices
> going up in America.
>
>  db
>
>  p.s. I cc'd this directly to Paul, North American ISOC rep. As a former
> Verizon employee, he knows they are looking to maximize profits so of
> course take advantage of weak competition. He and Sally have done a great
> job bringing the chapters and members into the ISOC discussion. They also
> have been doing a great job getting the telcos involved in ISOC. It's
> particularly difficult for ISOS to get involved in bringing affordability
> to the U.S., but that's what we need to do.
>
>
>
>
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>
>
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-- 
David Vyorst
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