01 Feb 08 Net Sucks… At Least In The US

Just as iTunes announce a new digital movie rental program, Time Warner is looking at metered net pricing over it’s Road Runner cable service.

It’s all about competition of course, and Time Warner don’t want you to download a movie from iTunes when you can pay them to download it from their TV cable service.

I use Comcast, Time Warners main competitor, and if I ever have to call them up, they’re always trying to get me to have more television channels. I keep telling them, I’m not the slightest bit interested in the TV part of your operation, “Give me a faster net pipe!”

Internet provision in the US, where the Internet was born, ranks 24th in terms of speed and reliability,  and we pay higher prices too.  It’s seven times more expensive here than in Korea, and the Japanese have average speeds over a dozen times faster than the US.

Perhaps if the industry spend time working out how to offer faster service for less money, instead of finding ways to restrict our already underpowered, overpriced service, we might move up that league table.

Tags: cable service, comcast, competitor, faster service, internet provision, itunes, korea, money, program time, reliability, road runner cable, seven times, television channels, time warner, time warners, tv cable