Technology

I'm gonna put it this way: In an apartment complex I used to live in, AT&T service was terrible while Sprint (still a thing at the time) and Tmobile had okay service, and Verizon had great service.

One of my neighbors there was literally worked for AT&T as a telcom engineer or something, and was as such eligible to get free cell service from AT&T.

He paid the hundred bucks or whatever at the time for Verizon, instead of the literally free service he could get from his employer, because it was so terrible. Good riddance.

This is a good example of the "If you regulate/tax business, they'll just leave and you'll be sorry!" Ayn Rand fallacy.

All this means is that their business model was to gouge consumers, and being barred from gouging cheap internet for their poorest customers revealed that they were (and still are everywhere else) bad faith, dishonest, antisocial actors that have no interest in providing products and services for a reasonable margin.

Just as with any business that would exit a market, or billionaire that would leave the country to prevent taxation back into the commons that facilitated their wealth accumulation to begin with (a preliterate workforce, roads and utilities they disproportionately degrade with heavy use, etc) you demonstrate that you work against your own customers and your own people, so by all means, gtfo.

The US Government needs to stop dicking around with this neoliberal bullshit and just offer mobile and home Internet AS A UTILITY.

Use the existing USPS infrastructure and cut out all the bullshit ISPs and parasitical orgs that have been bloating themselves on taxpayers for decades, with zero improvements to users.

Bring back basic banking at USPS too.

popcorn

Don't mind me, just reading comments on my €10, 1gbps mobile connection in the train home from work.

"AT&T's shitty business model can't provide quality service in NY, so they gave up."

I'm sure there will be a federal giveaway of money for internet providers to expand their networks to rural users to solve this problem....and they totally won't just keep the money, give ti to executives as bonuses, and refuse to do the work or anyhting.

… business customers can keep any device they purchased at no charge," AT&T said.

Gee how magnanimous (emphasis mine)