While these are good points, you did forget to point out the 2.7 metric fucktons of snow that Lake Michigan deposits on you.

You are not an asshole.

I've used apps that have payment systems like you describe, and I've found it to be a completely fair balance between free trial and paying, and I usually pay.

Neither are studios like TellTale that create episodic content. Often, the first episode is free, and you pay per episode after that. They create new content, and if I like what I've had so far, I pay for more. We both win. The developer gets more money and I get more content.

EA, et all, ARE assholes. There is no full version, but there is an endless gauntlet of payments that come up for as long as you play the game. THIS SUCKS, and I've stopped this treadmill.

Try again.
Verizon made (net profit, after taxes, etc) over 11 BILLION in 2013. AT&T made over $18B.

I'm sure it wasn't because he made a typo on a comment. Grow up.

You're making a false choice.

Those family members already have POTS service. Some do not need Internet, but all would like it.

Where they live, cellular is NOT an option. No Internet service exists (not even slow and rickety DSL) that they can use for VoIP, as Satellite-based Internet has too high of a RTT to work.

The phone companies want to take away their POTS service.

I'm fine with that, as long as they have something that is at least the same cost & functionality running over VoIP.

Again, MANDATE LTE coverage without limits (my grandma can talk as long as she wants over POTS on a local call with no extra fees), OR, mandate fiber be put in to replace the POTS infrastructure.

Universal service is a something we have had for a long time and depend on. Your food is grown by people that use this.

If that means we have to charge a USF for everyone's Internet, fine with me. If that means we quit spending USF money for things that are not related to providing Universal internet access, also fine (there is a lot of waste there).

What isn't fine is removing an infrastructure that everyone that has ever had a phone paid for with USFs, and not putting in a modern replacement. Essentially, that is theft.

And what will the SIP run on?

I have several family members without access to any network than can support VoIP. Another's only choice is LTE via HomeFusion from Verizon. 30GB for $130 a month. Have you tried running a modern family of 6 people (each with their own tablet, phone, and then the varied internet connected devices like DVRs and consoles) on 30GB? It sucks.

If they mandate unlimited LTE at a reasonable price or mandate fiber optic instead, then I agree this would be great & we should kill POTS.

If this is just a scheme to get people that pay $30/mo for phone service to start paying $100 a month for internet + voice, then it should die.

Couple things:

1. Traffic Shaping *CAN* be done in a Network Neutral way. If all RTP traffic is higher than all SMTP traffic (regardless if the RTP traffic is from my house to a friend and the SMTP traffic is from Comcast), then you have preserved NETWORK (not traffic) neutrality. I think this is acceptable to most people that support Network Neutrality.

2. Traffic Shaping should only be used in bursts. If you are using it for hours at a time, BUY MORE CAPACITY. I've yet to see any shaping that works as well as more capacity.
In other words, if your ISP is saturated every night between suppertime and bedtime, they need more capacity.
If they use shaping to make sure a sudden burst of downloads for the latest Apple iOS updates don't impact VoIP and Video RTP for their customers, that is a good thing.

Slow clap.

Wish I had mod points.

Sokath, his eyes uncovered!

Comcast, as much as I hate them, actually solved this by assigning IPv6 addresses to their modem (or your modem as the case may be), and then bridging the IPv4 customer side separately. I *think* the IPv6 side is also bridged, but it could be routed.
They have been forward-thinking on IPv6, and the 2 carriers I can think of that are not Comcast that you might work for have been dragging their feet. The time to deploy IPv6 was years ago, at least on the network management side.

I AM THE LAW!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

I agree with your post, have no mod points, and have nothing else useful to add. :)

No one wants to be reminded that all of that debt and extra "education" may not have been required.
It is less disturbing for many to claim they made the best choice where there was no good one.

As soon as Google gets some penalty from a government regarding their use of a dominant position as a search engine to mandate that the use of their services requires using their social network (Google+), then I'll entertain the idea that Microsoft could get penalized for this.

Until then, I'm pretty sure MS is safe from the governments.

The first Xbox shipped with an ethernet connection when most people were on dial-up.

My point is that they could have played to the majority that have a high-bandwidth connection and leave the PS4 and the Xbox 360 for those that don't. Don't try to be everything to everyone.

They could have gone without a disc.Make it like a Steam box.

There are rumors they considered it, and I wish they would have. Chances are they could have still bundled the Kinect and been at price parity without the BD drive.

I was really looking forward to the discless console. I don't normally resell my games, and I have a gamer family of 4 with multiple consoles. For me, it was a huge win to buy everything digital and never have it damaged, be able to play it on every device without buying a second copy, etc...
Plus, they had the option to cut out the distribution layer. Even if they didn't lower the price for the digital copy, more money would have gone directly to the developer, and I'm sure some of it would have also gone to Microsoft.

They majorly screwed up the PR around this, though, and backed out. When all of the "always on" rumors started, they should have jumped on it explaining all of the benefits of a digital download only model. Instead, they did a "no comment" and everyone focused on the negatives.