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Skinny Dipping with Naked DSL
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Like the 49 million other US subscribers hooked on broadband's highspeed byways, I've become accustomed to the luxury of getting what I want, not just when I want it, but where. And once you have it, well, there you are…standing on that slippery slope looking at your cell phone in the one hand and your landline waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over there across the room, all inconvenient and old school.
And little voip internet phone voices start whispering in your ear, asking if you really need that tied-down landline after all, what with voip's cheaper prices and mobility? You already have broadband and a cell phone; how many people besides telemarketers are actually calling you on that lunker of a phone line attached to your house?
Of course, the Phone Company has a different take on how vital that little old copper wire is. In fact, most of the time they make you pay for a phone line in order to get DSL. Even if you don't use it for anything other than access to their broadband service. That you pay for on top of the idle phone line that nobody calls anyway because they know it's just easier to call your cell or voip number.
Which stinks so, naturally, consumers have been fighting for standalone broadband service. Usually customers can use the power of choice to make their voices heard, but the telecommunications industry is notoriously devoid of regional choice, MaBell's break-up notwithstanding. That's when our Federal and State governments generally step in and tell the monopoly or duopoly that it needs to expand its service for the good of the citizenry (aka: the economy). But the FCC has been something of a fickle sweetheart, swinging from big business to the consumer and back again. Despite paper promises of broadband choice, most US consumers are still waiting.
After all the hype surrounding unbundled services in the wake of the reconsolidation of the Telecommunication industry, somehow, it just seems underwhelming. I mean, even with a magnifying glass, where is all that glorious, unfettered broadband we were promised? Sure, sure, the Telcos can claim Seinfeldian shrinkage after taking a long hard look at their bottom lines, but still…I want my naked DSL.
