OK. The Amber/AT&T fiasco has frosted my shorts enough to cause me to stop shoving cupcakes down my throat long enough to exercise my rights by madly typing this message on this forum. :smile:
Anyway, when AT&T misses Nokia's drop-dead date of "the end of September," I'd like to write various people and propose breaking up the telecom industry so this kind of thing stops and the U.S. can climb out of the Third World of Telecommunications status that we've dug ourselves into. So, here's my proposed legislation:
Die, AT&T. Die!
Oh. Sorry about that. I have no idea where that came from. Seriously, though:
1. No telecommunication company with a presence or customers in more than one State shall provide any products or services directly to the consumer. They shall be restricted to maintaining and operating their long-haul telecommunications backbone.
2. Each long-haul telecommunication company shall maintain and operate their backbone to be interoperable with all the others. Some non-governmental Standards Board that must exist out there somewhere will determine which technologies and frequencies will be used and, by gum, the telecommunications companies will implement those standards toot-suite.
3. Each telecommunication company shall encrypt all traffic entering their system and decrypt it as it leaves it. Some other non-governmental Standards Board shall provide the encryption software the telecommunications companies shall use and shall confirm that the NSA, DEA, and other commie fish-poops haven't bastardized the algorithms.
4. Only companies with a presence and customers in a single State shall provide the telecommunication linkage between the consumer and the long-haul telecommunications companies. The States shall ensure that at least three such companies service every location in their demesne. As with the long-haul telecommunications providers, each single-State telecommunications company shall ensure that any telecommunications services provided must follow the industry standards required by those boards mentioned, above, and shall be interoperable across all providers.
5. No telecommunications company shall sell, lease, or require the equipment necessary to interface with their systems. Specifically (though not exhaustively), they shall not provide phones, modems, routers, gateways, cryptographic or other equipment to the consumer. Consumers will provide their own equipment by buying it on their own with their own darn money and not have the true costs hidden amongst the telecommunications charges.
6. No telecommunications company shall require any kind of long-term contract to access their systems. If the telecommunications companies require ANY contract at all, the consumer shall be able to cancel it immediately at any time that the telecommunications company gets too big for its britches and arbitrarily changes the contract. The telecommunications companies shall pro-rate any charge to cover charges only up to the cancellation date. No telecommunication company shall charge any kind of connection fee or disconnection fee.
7. Only the company/entity providing the operating system for any telecommunications equipment shall provide official updates to that software and no company, no where, no how, shall interfere with those updates. No mere provider of the pipes shall have any say-so on the release of those updates. Ditto for the equipment manufacturers (unless they happen to provide the operating system as well). However, no equipment producer shall require the use of any particular operating system or version.
So, what do you think? Remember, bad words are frowned upon.
Anyway, when AT&T misses Nokia's drop-dead date of "the end of September," I'd like to write various people and propose breaking up the telecom industry so this kind of thing stops and the U.S. can climb out of the Third World of Telecommunications status that we've dug ourselves into. So, here's my proposed legislation:
Die, AT&T. Die!
Oh. Sorry about that. I have no idea where that came from. Seriously, though:
1. No telecommunication company with a presence or customers in more than one State shall provide any products or services directly to the consumer. They shall be restricted to maintaining and operating their long-haul telecommunications backbone.
2. Each long-haul telecommunication company shall maintain and operate their backbone to be interoperable with all the others. Some non-governmental Standards Board that must exist out there somewhere will determine which technologies and frequencies will be used and, by gum, the telecommunications companies will implement those standards toot-suite.
3. Each telecommunication company shall encrypt all traffic entering their system and decrypt it as it leaves it. Some other non-governmental Standards Board shall provide the encryption software the telecommunications companies shall use and shall confirm that the NSA, DEA, and other commie fish-poops haven't bastardized the algorithms.
4. Only companies with a presence and customers in a single State shall provide the telecommunication linkage between the consumer and the long-haul telecommunications companies. The States shall ensure that at least three such companies service every location in their demesne. As with the long-haul telecommunications providers, each single-State telecommunications company shall ensure that any telecommunications services provided must follow the industry standards required by those boards mentioned, above, and shall be interoperable across all providers.
5. No telecommunications company shall sell, lease, or require the equipment necessary to interface with their systems. Specifically (though not exhaustively), they shall not provide phones, modems, routers, gateways, cryptographic or other equipment to the consumer. Consumers will provide their own equipment by buying it on their own with their own darn money and not have the true costs hidden amongst the telecommunications charges.
6. No telecommunications company shall require any kind of long-term contract to access their systems. If the telecommunications companies require ANY contract at all, the consumer shall be able to cancel it immediately at any time that the telecommunications company gets too big for its britches and arbitrarily changes the contract. The telecommunications companies shall pro-rate any charge to cover charges only up to the cancellation date. No telecommunication company shall charge any kind of connection fee or disconnection fee.
7. Only the company/entity providing the operating system for any telecommunications equipment shall provide official updates to that software and no company, no where, no how, shall interfere with those updates. No mere provider of the pipes shall have any say-so on the release of those updates. Ditto for the equipment manufacturers (unless they happen to provide the operating system as well). However, no equipment producer shall require the use of any particular operating system or version.
So, what do you think? Remember, bad words are frowned upon.
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