It's Not Content, But Price That's Stalling Broadband
from the no-one-wants-to-pay dept
For a while now people have been saying that broadband adoption in the US is slow because there simply isn't compelling broadband content. Of course, for years, companies have tried to produce broadband content, and they've all failed. Business Week points out that most people really don't care about the content online. They see the internet more as a communications medium - and not so much of a content delivery platform. That would explain why studies have shown that the "always on" part of broadband is more important to many people than the "high speed" part. The article suggests the real hurdle to widespread broadband adoption is the price of the service. People aren't willing to spend $50 a month. If prices dropped, they say, more people would flock to broadband, and the additional content would develop on its own (without extra pressure from the government). However, those lower prices could end up cutting into the various high speed providers' margins - which they're avoiding.
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Broadband for $50?
Its like SBC always says..."anyone can call themselves a phone provider" but if they are far more efficient, care more about their customers than SBC does (which isn't very difficult,) and nickel and dime their customers to death with meaningless taxes like "number portability charges" which does not necessarily make the number you have portable (yes, other companies charge these taxes, but they also do what is required in order to collect these charges,) they can't call themselves a "phone company".
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