Internet, television, and phones: things that most of the population uses on a daily basis and has become part of a routine lifestyle. But at what cost?
In a new book titled, “The Fine Print: How Big Companies Use ‘Plain English’ to Rob You Blind,” Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter David Cay Johnston reveals some shocking facts about the travesties that occur with the Internet, telephone, and television providers. A few quickie facts are:
- American citizens pay four times as much French citizens for Internet bundle packages
- When the Internet was first invented, America was #1 for Internet Speed, now we are #29 in the world
- America pays 38 times as much as the Japanese pay for Internet access
Back in the 1970′s, when more telephone providers were emerging, there were promises of lower prices, but prices skyrocketed instead!
In a recent study, only three people out of 1000 could fully understand their phone bill and what they were paying for. Service provides are continually making it more difficult for individuals to understand there contracts and making customers pay for features which were once free.
Johnson explains that the reason for these increases are due to lobbyists in Washington that are looking out for the business rather than the customer. He explains that the country was promised access to the “Information Superhighway,” but that will never be achieved. Most of the country will never have access to fiber optic lines, and even in heavily populated areas the connectivity is poor. The phone industries and cable providers relationship has basically become a “cartel,” in the words of Johnson.
The customer is once again screwed over by big business!
So question:
How much are you guys paying monthly for your Internet, Phone, and television bills? Which provider seems to be the most reliable?
