AT&T pulls 5G home Internet from New York to protest state affordability law.
I don’t see what the issue is here. They don’t want to be treated as a utility, but if they stay in New York, they’ll be regulated as a utility. They’ve dealt with it as a phone provider, and choose not to engage in the regulatory environment being put in front of them. It’s a totally reasonable choice for a business to walk away from a market if the cost of doing business would exceed the profits made.
Apple could have done the same thing with the EU. Either don’t put USB-C on their phones, or cease doing business in those countries.
That’s correct, and the fact that Apple caved from the 8-Pin Lightning connector to USB-C is one of many, many reasons I won’t be buying anything Apple again, even second-hand. The lack of a headphone jack is just one more thing that made me certain of it. If I could find a micro-USB device with a headphone jack that serves as a phone, a pager, a calculator, and an audio (various formats - MP2A,MP3A,MP4A,WAV, FLAC, OGG, WMA, etc.) player, all my problems would be solved. I have looked into featurephones, I think I’m going to be moving in that direction next time I upgrade.
fuck apple forever, for sure, because they’re proprietary from soup to nuts. but “caved” moving to a universal standard instead of a proprietary charging cable, as if that’s a bad thing? yeah, man, i dunno what you’re smokin, but you should put the pipe down.
USB is so so so so so so so much worse than Lightning. Yes Apple is one of the only companies who manages to implement it so it mostly works, but it was still a huge downgrade.
Personally I’d be happy if I never had to touch a micro-USB device ever again. Mini-USB is somewhat acceptable, but USB-C blows the rest out of the water. It’s unquestionably the better USB standard
Find me a USB-C that doesn’t fall out. Every Micro-USB male plug that I’ve used has those two notches at the bottom that hold it in place. Every device I’ve had with USB-C, I have to treat it like it’s super delicate while it charges.
I’ve had many instances of micro-USB bending, some to the point of breakage. This never happened even once with USB-C.
Very much the opposite. The only broken USB port I’ve ever had was a USB-C port for a netbook charger.
How? The netbook era ended way before USB-C is even a thing.
I have maybe a few dozen USB C devices all from dumb 5V/2A chargers to 20V/5A chargers. From USB 5GB to USB 40GB. Never once have I ever had issue with the cables and connectors. Only time I’ve had an issue was when I dropped my phone into the charging cable where it physically broke off.
Meanwhile I’ve had an iPhone for 4 years and the lightning connector broke in such a way I had to use hot glue to pull it out of the port.
But apple had Usb-C years before on IPad these scumbags withhold it only from Iphone so that you had ti buy a sepearate Cable Fuck Apple
Micro USB was definitely horrid. The USB C connector is OK agreed other than the gender is on the wrong sides which still causes reliability issues vs lightning. And USB is such a mess, no mortal has any hope of knowing what the usb c port they have will actually do.
Interesting, so it seems because ATT doesn’t have fiber already setup in NY that they’re pulling out. If more states did this, they probably wouldn’t be able to handle pulling out, financially.
I remember when the US government paid AT&T to get fiber to the curb of American homes.
Then AT&T didn’t. And then the US sued AT&T to get the money back and into the hands of US Americans. Wireless internet is an end-around having to fulfill those promises of a wide bandwidth future. And here is the evidence for that.
popcorn
Don’t mind me, just reading comments on my €10, 1gbps mobile connection in the train home from work.
I’m enjoying this from my £28 a month 100Gb 5G contract that includes the cost of my iPhone.
(and which is about to drop to £10 a month because I’ve paid off the phone)
Nice! I ain’t going to be seen with a normie-phone tho
The US Government needs to stop dicking around with this neoliberal bullshit and just offer mobile and home Internet AS A UTILITY.
Use the existing USPS infrastructure and cut out all the bullshit ISPs and parasitical orgs that have been bloating themselves on taxpayers for decades, with zero improvements to users.
Bring back basic banking at USPS too.
By USPS you mean post office? If so, I’m gonna need you to explain the “USPS infrastructure can be reworked to offer internet service” part. Not arguing, genuinely curious.
You used to be able to do some banking at your local post office. You still can at some offices but it has largely been done away with. I believe they were referring to this and not USPS as an ISP.
I actually meant both. To use USPS for basic banking, AND have them offer internet from the same locations.
I see that now. My brain read your first USPS as ISP I guess. In which case… yes please do explain what infrastructure they have that could be used to deliver internet to the masses.
They have physical locations and extant real estate across the entire US.
So, rather than continuing to give billions to private ISPs that do literally nothing with that money, and who double-down to curtail services whenever mildly inconvenient, my suggestion is that we (ie US Government) does not provide a single additional dollar in funding or subsidies, and instead invests that money in building itself a USG internet UTILITY. If necessary, clawback the billions that have gone to Comcast, ATT, Verizon et al, or just seize their networks and charge their executives with RICO and fraud. They essentially operate as a cartel anyway.
Love the idea of expanding the usps. Also think they could be a more sustainable Amazon with reusable packaging, quality staple goods, and fairly-paid & well-treated employees!
If only…
Well I doubt that is going happen anytime soon. https://www.npr.org/2024/04/26/1247393656/net-neutrality-explained-fcc
https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/federal-net-neutrality-reinstatement-3966433/
FCC lacks authority to make that happen.
“The recent ruling by the 6thCircuit Court of Appeals is one of the first major challenges to a federal agency action after the Chevron Doctrine—which gave deference to federal agency decision-making and findings—was overturned in the landmark Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo decision by the Supreme Court in June 2024.”
This is a good example of the “If you regulate/tax business, they’ll just leave and you’ll be sorry!” Ayn Rand fallacy.
All this means is that their business model was to gauge consumers, and being barred from gauging cheap internet for their poorest customers revealed that they were (and still are everywhere else) bad faith, dishonest, antisocial actors that have no interest in providing products and services for a reasonable margin.
Just as with any business that would exit a market, or billionaire that would leave the country to prevent taxation back into the commons that facilitated their wealth accumulation to begin with (a preliterate workforce, roads and utilities they disproportionately degrade with heavy use, etc) you demonstrate that you work against your own customers and your own people, so by all means, gtfo.
I’m gonna put it this way: In an apartment complex I used to live in, AT&T service was terrible while Sprint (still a thing at the time) and Tmobile had okay service, and Verizon had great service.
One of my neighbors there was literally worked for AT&T as a telcom engineer or something, and was as such eligible to get free cell service from AT&T.
He paid the hundred bucks or whatever at the time for Verizon, instead of the literally free service he could get from his employer, because it was so terrible. Good riddance.
