You pretty much answered your own question in the summary.

That is the position the large ISPs are taking (on the surface, anyway): we have the only lines the customer can use because we "own" that area, they can't switch, it's us or nothing.

The way I look at it, however is that if I were to peer directly with Netflix and/or host a Netflix cache (even at my own expense in the data center), prospective subscribers (the ones who care, who are also most likely the ones will pay the most) are going to subscribe to my ISP over my competition because we can use it as a selling point: "Hey, your Netflix will never buffer and it will come through at HD quality" - and if we added the bonus that "Hey, Netflix traffic won't count towards your cap" (if a cap is imposed) the customer is going to think the service is the bees knees... then word of mouth happens.

And all of this I think makes yet another great case for open/common infrastructure (not even municipalities running their own ISPs but companies who own distribution networks simply making the infrastructure available and saying to ISPs "here it is, have at it").

Imagine if the existing providers were forced to split in to infra/retail divisions and sell access to the infra at fair and equal wholesale prices to any ISP, thus allowing companies like Google or Sonic.net or any of the other smaller ISPs all around the country to be able to offer services over any infrastructure they could get access to!

Imagine if Comcast, TWC, AT&T, Verizon and so on all of a sudden had to actually compete on quality/customer service etc?

The large ISPs would of course need to be really forced - kicking, screaming and probably throwing tantrums along the way - but I would love to see something like this in America.

100k EUR for the cheapest one, yes. Significantly more with all the mod-cons and larger back seat.

Either way, I have a feeling that people with 6-figure salaries (save yahoos/yuppies and such) - and especially Germans with this income level - tend toward consuming healthier things than soda, instead probably opting for Perrier water or something - at least I've never any of my friends parents (who are the type who would own an S-Class) drink anything resembling a Coke.

Hell, even regular Germans tip the beer in to a glass rather than drink straight out of the can (save maybe university students, but that kind of reinforces the point).

But yes, the post was tongue in cheek... a Maybach would probably be more representational of the Chauffer-driven types ;)

This is an S-Class, not a lowly C or E class.

Why on earth would anybody other than the chauffeur be touching the steering wheel anyway, and why would a chauffeur be trying to fool the car which he's being paid to drive with a can? Sheesh.

Depending on where you're flying from (the last couple of times I've been it's been from Chicago but I've also gone to/from there via Germany, Ukraine and Qatar depending on where I was starting), the fares are surprisingly reasonable.

And changing money from USD/EUR/GBP is easy to do just about anywhere once you get there.

Never mind, looks like it was an AC above.

Still. Visit Georgia. It's nice there.

...Just checking but... you're aware of where the Republic of Georgia is, right? (I couldn't find the source of what you seemed to be quoting, so I'm not sure of the context).

The country has good high-speed Internet access (far better than the US, especially in Tbilisi, but even outside Tbilisi it's pretty good), relatively cheap real-estate, cheap-ish labour, relatively good banking system, relatively temperate climate compared to much of Europe and the power supply seems pretty stable - at least I've never experienced a power outage in any of the time I've spent there (probably a cumulative total of about a year over several visits) - and, compared to some other former-Soviet nations it's not doing too badly on the government/political/diplomatic front, either.

For that matter, I'd highly recommend a visit - while technically not in Europe, Tbilisi in particular feels and looks quite European. From the US you can fly Turkish airlines from large airports (like Chicago) to Tbilisi via Istanbul; within the EU, Lufthansa flies from Munich (or if you're feeling adventurous, several airlines can take you via Kiev or Odessa), from Asia, Qatar Airways via Doha (with an hour stop in Baku).

Passports from most developed countries (US/CA, UK/EU, AUS/NZ, Singapore etc) don't even need to arrange a visa before visiting: just show up at the border and get a stamp and use of English is not entirely out of the question (Russian or German may help, but they'll be super-impressed if you learn a few Georgian words).

I'm in a similar boat. While you can pay online for some stuff (electricity, internet), around here you get charged a "convenience fee", which in the case of my most recent electric bills can be equivalent to as high as 10% of the bill itself. Fuck that - that is not convenient, that is a blatant ripoff. As far as I know, I can't pay the water/trash/sewer online though and definitely wasn't able to pay the rent online.

The only reason I'd ever used checks before coming to the US is because I also lived in and have interests in India where it's mostly a check/cash based economy.

Having lived in several other countries through Europe, the Middle East, East-Asia and Oceania, I would also suggest that the whole bill-payment process in the US is backwards and old-fashioned. Even in the early 2000's I could pay 100% of my stuff online (including rent/mortgage/credit cards) in countries like NZ and Finland.

It could also have something to do with the fact that normally foreigners are not allowed in cantonments and other restricted areas and so the use of locals opens both sides up to problems.

My visa specifically mentions which cities I can live in (so I must register with the FRRO in either of those cities; as far as I know, I don't think I can just up and move from say Delhi or Mumbai to somewhere else without getting some additional permitting or a replacement visa first) but it also says "not valid for prohibited / restricted and cantonment areas" meaning I can't even visit those places without getting permission first (which could be a pain in the ass if someone were to actually check my documents as I move around, because sometimes the only way to get from A to B is through such an area).

So apart from the replies concerning bribery (probably a factor), the government may simply be annoyed that Google is recruiting Indians to do stuff for a foreign entity which involves "areas of interest", which is fair enough I suppose - if said foreign entity were a government, wouldn't that basically amount to spying?

I fully 100% agree with you and I'm aware there is plenty of legal p2p traffic. I love when our users use all that sort of stuff and our last-mile networks are designed to take advantage of all that sort of thing, with what you might call "hyper-local" caches from a Bulgarian company, and to a lesser extent users can get direct connections through applications like good old DC++ and such (and it saves them on their traffic quotas if they have one).

A large percentage of ISPs in the US are clecs or resellers in some form or another and have nearly zero control over last mile delivery or local access. Including ourselves to a large extent, so the offerings aren't nearly as cool as they are elsewhere.

What I was referencing though was the idea for Netflix to build or license a client like Popcorn Time which utilizes p2p (currently in a not legal way, though obviously if Netflix rebuilt it to access Netflix' library it would be distributing it's content under license), because, in my own experiments, PT has proven itself to me to work better than Netflix on my own connection in the US (and with a higher quality stream) - especially during certain times of the day.

Plus, as far as I can ascertain it would make that whole "Netflix on Linux" issue easier (depending on the DRM) -- no more hacky silverlight nonsense. Probably.

Wait a second... you say "Cable companies are not under the franchise obligations. They only serve areas that are profitable. That footprint is very tightly held within the profitable part of town"...

I have some contracts that say "franchise agreement" at the top from a few different cities and counties around where I am (the mid-west - not rural rural, but not a big town, either) that would beg to differ on that.

And I don't think they're losing money... based on *my* cost for bandwidth (as delivered) and the prices they're charging multiplied by the number of subscribers in the area it looks like... yup... hand over fist. Helped enormously, no doubt, by all the fees on the bill (like franchise fees and tax) being extra.

Same applies to many parts of northern Europe, although it's a bit more than $30/mo (99EUR for Gigabit last I checked)... although we had 10/10 for I think 10EUR a month in Finland and 100/100 included in our rent somewhere else... in 2005-6.

Even countries like Georgia have better Internet than the US - and excellent ping times, too (London roundtrip in 31ms for circa 3500km/2200mi... I can get that from Southern IL to Chicago maybe but couldn't get that from here to say LA, which is only about 75% of the distance).

2 words: Popcorn Time.

P2P (Bittorrent) and from what I've seen, works great on almost anything.

If only it were a legal source... Maybe Netflix could adopt that client or build a similar one to stream it's library.

Alot of Verizon's FiOS deployment is GPON isn't it?

That might be one reason (although, considering uploads are still usually used way less than downloads, not a very good one).

We need more people to be given the freedom to do things like this... to push the limits of existing stuff and expand on it. How else are we supposed to expect innovation?

What Mr Wetzel did was just that, and it was a good thing. These days of course, there'd be too much flak from insurance companies and lawyers.

Been there, done that, on numerous occasions.

When I used to travel between Saijo/Matsuyama (Ehime-ken) and Tokyo or Fukuoka 2-3 times a week, the only reason I took a plane was because of the whole island thing. If I needed to do something on the same island, it was always the train... but in either case, I was rarely ever waiting around at either a station or airport.

I believe if your Shinkansen is late, you get a note to explain why... do you still get the ticket-price credit?

And in the airport, you used to put your drink on some kind of scanner which would determine if you could take it on board - there was no policy of "throw any and all liquids away"... is that still true?

Ahh memories. Kind of want to move back there now.