New taxes could slam Net phone users

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You should not have to pay for anyone elses choices

The problem is, Jim, that because of government intervention in many cases even rural cost for services are artificially higher than they should be.

I do not expect anyone to subsidize my expenses nor should the others people in the state subsidize the telco or any opther service for that matter. You are correct I made the choice to move here.

Government intervention has precluded competition to the 1 telco and 1 electric company available to me. The result is that I am forced by government fiat to pay higher fees while the telco receives gov subsidies for rural areas. I'll tie in the electric co. in a sec.

I would love to be able to use Cable access and move to VOIP dropping my telco completely. Not available because the cable company that "could" supply me the service cannot because of gov mandated franchise areas. The cable company that is available to me will not upgrade their equipment for my area, last mile issues again. There are other telcos that would love to service the area I live, but again gov regulation precludes that from happening. I cannot use a cell phone for long distance here, no tower or connection available and VOIP? No savings because I have to pay the telco for basic services to have DSL. See the rats nest. Competition to the telco is available if they could get in, they can't, I pay (yes by choice)higher rates and the Telco is still subsidized by taxes.

The electric company is an even larger issue yet. TX recently "deregulated" the industry allowing competition for the service. I am stuck paying for the higher priced spread while myu neighbor 5 miles down the road has a choice between the original provider and several other competitors. Our iusage is about the same yet I am paying 15% more thab he is. Why? ENTERGY complained that too many people were leaving them. In their defense Entergy was mandated by the state that they could not lower their rates to compete for 5 years. So what happened next? To bring fairness the state froze the expansion of availability of companies to the consumer protecting Entergy. Once again COMPETITION has been stymied by the gov and consumers suffer.

What irks me is the telco. I pay higher prices because of the lack of competion across the board and they receive gov subsidies. Sigh....I'm done ranting now. Oh yeah I am coming your way in October. Awww yes Maine in the fall. Can't wait.

Posted by: Squawkbox   Posted on: 08/24/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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