Narfwad's Journal: Government supported monopolies like AT&T cheat customers

I just got cheated by AT&T for the third and last time. I made an international call and got charged $3.49 dollars a minute. Every one else does not charge near that much. Messaging cost 20 cents per message sent and 15 cents received regardless of weather or not it reaches the destination. It does not cost anywhere near that much to do something like this, but I got charged.

I got a tracfone and its messages are 6.33 cents per message and I am sure it could be done cheaper.

All the phone monopolies make plans with hidden fees and ensure no one plan fit everything you need to charge you more when you do something not in the plan. Anything other than full disclosure of all cost that may be incurred in a purchase is not capitalistic.

The FCC sells off bandwidth to a select few companies when there is absolutely no need for it since radio broadcast can be setup like a network. That would alleviate congestion as well because multiple digital devices can transmit in the same frequency. Making radio broadcast like the internet will also allow individuals to produce alternatives.

One thing that could happen to make things affordable is an individual can make a broadcast tower hooked to the internet with a VOIP to transfer all calls from the internet to the tower to a portable device.

It seems to me that instead of the government making rules to rule the individuals that they should concentrate on their only real job protecting individuals. Business has no right to control government and government has no right to control business. I think that business should not be spending company money to enact government laws. If individuals who run the business donate from their own pocket then that is fine, but otherwise it is just wrong.

What say you?