The "Gouge" is unfortunately, alive
and well. Not only is it alive and
well, its with us today more than ever....
Take a look at the Phone Company's charges
for (1) long distance (2) T1 Access (3) dsl
access, both types (4) ISDN and you'll soon
see what I mean. Back in the days of Atari,
1982 and later, the baud rates of modems
gradually came from 300 baud to 28.8 baud and
the phone company literally wanted gold for
both the "dedicated" line and the
modem they had for sale or lease.
Today, we see the gouge roaring away in the
T1 areas. Yet, if one were to go to a
competitor (private phone companies) the
rates are much LESS! How is it a
private telephone carrier can charge less
than say, BellSouth when the private provider
is leasing the lines they are offering from
BellSouth?? That's easy, the wholesale
cost of the lines to the private carrier is
so much less than the gouge retail price
BellSouth charges that there's plenty of room
for very attractive discounts to the
customer. Of course, the Hard Drive Companies
are no angels either..... "In the
beginning," a Seagate 25mb ST225 mfm
hard disk mechanism cost approx 325 - 450
dollars depending upon where you bought
it. Then came the cost of the Adaptec
adapter and the host adapter to make it work
on the platform for which it was
intended. Usually, the final retail
cost was approaching 800.00 dollars.
Today for that kind of money one would be
looking at an entry level Raid Array.
Its sad to see the gouge become so plain to
see.
In modern terms, the Router companies,
like the "GREAT" Cisco are the REAL
BANDITS.... they, like many modern day Bells,
are using technology that's been around for a
while and they still want thousands of
dollars for their routers. Want to see
the real values of routers? Check out
the "used prices and the lease
prices". Cisco is enjoying bad
press across the country because many
businesses are realizing the actual
"customs cost" of Cisco's products
are easily 300% less than the prices they
charge! These companies had better wake
up lest they be awaked by the applause being
offered to an offshore company offering
similar if not identical products for
considerably less. The US Consumer, be
it a business or private individual is sick
and tired of giving the lion's share of
either their profits or disposable income for
item they need to make their computers
communicate properly. For those of you who
are in agreement.... forward or send this
editorial to your congressional
representative and let them know how upset
you are. The FCC can and will step in
and stop the gouge.
I don't think I'm wrong, I could be...
what do think? Let's hear from you!
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