Re: AT&T's Filters, Lies & Financial Statements


"Brian A." <gonefish'n@afarawaylake> wrote in message
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"jim" <jim@xxxxxxxx> wrote in message
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"AT&T argues that it must get involved in stopping the flow of pirated
content because much of this content is shared using peer-to-peer
protocols, which eats up valuable network bandwidth, slowing network
connections for many of its customers." -
http://www.news.com/Should-ATT-police-the-Internet/2100-1034_3-6226523.html

Really?

AT&T has never even tried a metered solution. Why not charge people for
the amount of bandwidth that they use? That's fair (even if unpopular
among us P2P users).

"I can't see why filtering traffic would be of interest to AT&T," said
Tim Wu, a law professor at Columbia University and an Internet pundit.
"AT&T spent six years and millions of dollars lobbying for a law so they
wouldn't have to filter for copyrighted material on their network. And
now they want to do it."

I'll tell you why. They make more money keeping people in the dark. They
make more money off the backs of lemmings who pay for a 3Mb/s DSL line to
check email and text message their friends than they would if the users
were actually told how much bandwidth they were using and charged
accordingly.

This isn't about bandwidth usage. If it were, they'd adopt a metered
solution or simply invest just a tiny portion of their $11.951 BILLION in
net profits for 2007 in a higher speed network. After all, if Charter
can invent a 150 MB/s cable modem, surely AT&T can get us to 15
MB/s.....can't they?

To further understand the disingenuousness (is that a word?) of AT&T's
comments, just look at their financials.

Instead of innovating and investing some of their ~$12 BILLION NET PROFIT
in 2007 in higher bandwidth technologies and networks (like the 33Mb/s
common lines in homes in Japan) AT&T wants to cut service while
maintaining rates. (Look under Financials>Net Income>2007(Annual) at
http://finance.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:T to see their ~$12 BILLION of
*reported* profits for yourself.)

Isn't there something illegal about selling me a 3Mb/s DSL line, and then
throttling it so that I am not getting the 3Mb/s I am paying for?

I think it is. In fact, I am going to talk to some attorneys tomorrow and
just see if any of them are interested in looking into a class action
lawsuit to "stem the flow" of this behavior by AT&T and others.

I can't be sure, but I'm sure at least one of them would jump at the
chance to look into it. What attorney wouldn't?

What do ya think? ~$12 BILLION in profits, but the lines are
overburdened? REALLY? And what will they want us to buy into next?

jim



Good luck with finding an attorney that would take up filing a class
action suit against a corporation that offers internet services and might
have a thought that their service may be being used for illegal activity.

Sure, it may be. But what about those of use downloading Ubuntu and other
Linux distros and free games like America's Army?

I am positive that some downloaders are breaking the law, but that doesn't
make all large downloaders lawbreakers. It also doesn't make AT&T the
internet police either.

Do you truly think their report on a net profit of $12 million is only
from the internet service they provide? Think again, they provide other
services as well.

It's $12 BILLION and no, it's not all from internet usage. But it is in the
same company's coffers and is available to be spent as they see fit.

My first problem is that their words don't match up with their actions.

My second problme is that - immediately following my posts on this subject,
my bandwidth download speed has dropped from an average of 1800 kbps to less
than 300kbps - and I'mnot downloading ANYTHING.

So, I called tech support. And, surprise, we got disconnected - but they
never called back on the home number that they requested just for such an
occurrance.

Am I paranoid? I don't know for sure - maybe. But I do know for sure that
my bandwidth has been cut by 83% since making these posts.

A coincidence? Sure.....let's go with that.....

jim



.

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