Sounds like the NBN (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on 2014-08-17 22:43 (#3Y9) Except of course that the NBN is backed by the Australian government paid for by the Australian public Re: Sounds like the NBN (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on 2014-08-17 23:03 (#3YA) Ah, well "Verizon" was once properly part of an even larger and more carefully regulated monopoly, AT&T a.k.a. Ma Bell a.k.a. The Phone Company, but was broken up into "Regional Bell Operating Companies" during one of our periodic bouts of deregulatory conservative fever dreams. They've been reassembling like Voltron ever since. (Verizon itself was not an original but rather was a rejoining of several split RBOCs; I'm still not clear how that was allowed to happen so soon after the breakup.)The US has a somewhat hilarious aversion to nationalizing the things that should by any reasonable estimation be nationalized. Look at the tooth and claw fighting against anything (remotely) resembling universal health care. But I digress.Verizon's excesses are in any case always paid for by the public, whether by local tax, federal tax, or subscriber abuses.
Re: Sounds like the NBN (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on 2014-08-17 23:03 (#3YA) Ah, well "Verizon" was once properly part of an even larger and more carefully regulated monopoly, AT&T a.k.a. Ma Bell a.k.a. The Phone Company, but was broken up into "Regional Bell Operating Companies" during one of our periodic bouts of deregulatory conservative fever dreams. They've been reassembling like Voltron ever since. (Verizon itself was not an original but rather was a rejoining of several split RBOCs; I'm still not clear how that was allowed to happen so soon after the breakup.)The US has a somewhat hilarious aversion to nationalizing the things that should by any reasonable estimation be nationalized. Look at the tooth and claw fighting against anything (remotely) resembling universal health care. But I digress.Verizon's excesses are in any case always paid for by the public, whether by local tax, federal tax, or subscriber abuses.