More on Comcast

[dsr at tao.merseine.nu]

On Mon, Jul 21, 2003 at 02:19:13PM -0400, Rich Braun wrote:
> 
> Cable TV companies are set up to audit theft of cable service.  They are
> stumped by wi-fi.  If enough people gang up on them and vote no to $50 service
> with their pocketbooks, and the ISP doesn't respond by offering a $25 service,
> something is going to have to give.  If they come up with a way to stamp out
> wi-fi theft, then some other technology could be adapted.  The collision
> course is pretty clear today, though.

So clear, in fact, that Speakeasy decided to roll with the punch.

http://www.speakeasy.net/main.php?page=pr070803

Precis: Order service from Speakeasy, share connectivity with your
neighbors, Speakeasy will bill them the amount you select and credit you
with 50% of what they collect. Your neighbors get mail, news, and other
ISP value-add from Speakeasy.

Not that you have to charge; Speakeasy will also let you provide free
wireless connectivity if your neighbors don't want their value-add
services.

In any urban setting, this is a very cost-effective method of acquiring
bandwidth. A 1.5/768 ADSL line runs $90/month; hardly anyone would
notice 3 families splitting that, and $30/month/family is the
above-mentioned sweet spot.

-dsr-


-- 
Network engineer / pre-sales engineer available in the Boston area.
http://tao.merseine.nu/~dsr