January 20, 2008

Welcome to 2008! Glad you all had a great Holiday Season but now it's time to hunker down and get serious with building our future. Either Utopia or something else. Doesn't matter to me but ignoring what the rest of the world is doing is just plain silly.

Before I start, it seems the FCC is investigating Comcast's strange behavior with P2P. There are many articles flying around including this one. Oh and if you wish, the FCC is looking for public comment regarding Comcast's behavior here. On the top right corner select "Submit a filing". I strongly recommend everyone submit their opinion of the companies practices. It's the only way change will happen for the better.

You must submit your comments before February 13 I believe so don't delay! Even Vuze is complaining about Comcast's P2P antics. They are one of the biggest P2P services I use. Can't say I blame them for complaining.

After all, it seems Network Neutrality and a fiber Infrastructure are more and more becoming issues for us. Even AT&T is talking about not staying Network Neutral and throttling traffic. Good Heavens! Obviously this is becoming an issue we need to address or risk loosing the Internet for something controlled by megacorps.

BTW, it's been a year since Comcast terminated my families Internet. I've been asked if I'm going back now that it's over. What do you guys think? Stay with an awesome ISP who honestly advertises their limits OR go with an abusive company who doesn't give a crap?

Well.. I wasn't idle. I've been making some youtube videos and finally posted one the other day. Here's my response to Comcast's mailed advertisements over the last few days. And I thought I was on their do no call list (Comcast's not the FCC). Only two days and 170 views. Not bad :D

I guess the real reason why we've had so many hits without really advertising is people are very dissatisfied with the company. So how many are unhappy with Comcast? Well.. it's a guess but I thought this article insightful. The article is titled "The "Tiny Percentage" of Dissatisfied Customers Turns Out to be 44%". That's tiny?? WOW!!

Just realized that other's are getting the message and talking about it. In fact a prediction for 2008 is that Internet surfing will slow. Seems the main complaint is video and audio downloads. From downloading to streaming services. Here's a cool story about the NFL pushing video over Broadband.

It's a big business and nothings been done to address the infrastructure. Other countries are showing just how much of a ripoff our Infrastructure really is as in this article.

Hong Kong residents can now enjoy their own fiber optic connections from Hong Kong Broadband Network Limited… which happen to be a fraction of the price and many times faster than what we can get here. Yes, HK residents can now get a whopping 100Mbps fiber optic connection for a mere $48.50 a month. And that's the entry-level package.

One more note. Seems the bills of Senator Stephenson and Rep. Craig Frank have been killed after leaving committee. Good job to everyone! This could not have happened without everyone's help. The Government is our servant and not the other way around. We still need to push the Community Broadband Act of 2007 to ensure our State Legislature doesn't mess up Utopia.

Utopia proponents aren't here to see it fail. We're here to make this work. Problems can be resolved. In fact it's interesting to see the changes being made now that people are seeing potential issues pop up and questions are being asked by many including myself. Much of the problems have been discussed at FreeUtopia.org. Why not head over there and put your two cents in :D