It's amazing that these kind of bugs get through the rigorous certification efforts that Level 3 and others do. While I'm glad they're isolating the problem, it's unsettling that these bugs can exist.

I didn't catch that. WPI is indeed a great alternative to RPI. In fact, I applied to both and would have been happy at either. I still think RPI has a higher profile than WPI, especially nationally. If you're going to NJ, maybe Stevens deserves a look? Not sure how their aerospace program stacks up.

WPI is great, but I can't recommend it ahead of RPI. At best they're the same, and the post already seems to prefer RPI due to proximity to home.

Cornell Engineering isn't part of the land grant part of Cornell, so you'll have to reconsider matching that with your public education schools.

Cornell. It's a no brainier if you can get in and want to stay in Upstate NY.

FiOS is straight VoIP for the telephone access, but you are correct about the broadcast channels over optical. I would fully expect FiOS to transition to IPTV once they want to provide 1 Gbps access, so they'll push all those channels off onto IP. It wouldn't be unbelievable to see them transition the 70% of channels that are very infrequently watched to IPTV first. This way, they could contain the control on the ESPNs and HBOs of the world, but free up bandwidth from the Current TV, Wealth TV, and other similarly lightly watched networks. They would need a new STB that would do converged IP and Broadcast signals.

UVerse is true IPTV, however, with no broadcast over their FTTN infrastructure.

Thanks for the tip - now the real question - do you actually use that setting ever or am I a crazy person?

No, if they change your plan, you can get out of the contract without fee. However, it looks like in this case, they are not modifying existing contracts. As a current customer, you don't have a complaint until your current contract expires. Then you switch, incur no fee and get the pricing plan you want.

Doesn't this negate your point about having to switch all your phones and the family plan?

I don't disagree. So it's a $20/month customer service charge. Does that make it better? You stick with AT&T or Verizon Wireless because they provide the best overall package for you. But you've got other options, you've just eliminated them because they don't give you want you want either.

Right on. I wish they had 2G only modes for my phone to save on battery. When I'm not browsing or watching video - what do I need 3G (or 4G) for?

It's like that stupid "Flash Mob" AT&T commercial. It's not like 4G actually gets the messages to me faster, the latency is probably about the same. Most importantly, the latency from the vibration of my phone, to me getting my phone out of my pocket, unlocking it, etc. - that latency is significantly longer than anything experienced on 2G or 3G. When my phone is in "passive" mode, it makes perfect sense to not be on 4G (or 3G). I'm way off-topic now.

Do you think that companies charge you what things cost to make? Do you think that it costs Fiji Water twice as much as Aquafina to bottle H2O? Newsflash: businesses charge on value, derived from what people are willing to pay, not based on what it costs them to produce such items. In cases of price gouging, competitors come into the market and undercut the original producer. In the case of Mobile Wireless, apparently it's a little bit trickier to upend the market, due to the massive capital infusion it would require to build out a national network.

No, the parent gave you an option - move your business to another carrier. You have at least 2 other choices (Sprint, Verizon Wireless) and in some cases many more (Metro PCS, TracFone, U.S. Cellular, Cricket). What's so hard about switching carriers again?

And now we know why Internet connections are so expensive. The damage experienced on your land (through the dog, or installer stupidity) cost the telco easily over $2000. You'd have to have service trouble free for a long time (5 years?) for them to make that money back.