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New York, 12:34 PM
Tue Nov 10
56 posts in the last 24 hours

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  • posts about #ripoff more →

    US Pays More For Cellphone Service, Carriers Insist That We Are Not Getting Screwed

    Why Sports on a Widescreen TV is a Ripoff...Sort Of

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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of closhedbb closhedbb
    08/13/09

    In reply to US Pays More For Cellphone Service, Carriers Insist That We Are Not Getting Screwed
    My guess as to why they keep charging us more:

    We keep paying it.
     Reply
    (Starman) AnalysisDialysis promoted this comment closhedbb was starred closhedbb was unstarred
    Image of dumanue dumanue
    08/13/09

    @closhedbb: and your other option would be? not use cellphones at all? which means not use technology that is available for us just because cellphone companies in the US are fucking greedy and nobody in the industry or in government stands up to them and their greedy ways...
     Reply
    dumanue was starred dumanue was unstarred
    Image of kfonda kfonda
    08/13/09

    @dumanue: Yes your other option is 'don't use a cellphone'. It may come as a shock, but I'm pretty sure you can survive for at least a little while without a cellphone.
    The companies will charge what the market will pay. If we all stop paying the price will come down. Everyone needs to stop blaming companies for being greedy, that is what companies are supposed to do. People invest in companies to make money on their investments. When the government moves in to control profits nobody will invest these companies any more. They can just invest in foreign companies that don't have these restrictions.
    Just look at the Auto company bailout. The investors got royally screwed in that deal. By law they were secured creditors and should have been payed first when the companies filed for bankruptcy but the Government ignored the law and just took their money. I for one will not ever invest in one of those companies again.

    Sorry for the long post, But people need to grow up an realize that this country is going to be a third world country in the near future if we keep going the way we are going now. It's not he Dems or the Repubs, it's all of them and all of the people who just blindly follow them because they are from the same party. People need to start paying attention to history and maybe read something besides Twitter.

    The people who died to create this country more than 200 years ago would be very disappointed if they saw what we have done to this country. In the grand scheme of things, this is a very young country at 232 years old. It would not be impossible for it to just go away like so many other great civilizations have.

    Now for a quote from a great man in American history:

    "Hallelujah. Holy shit. Where's the Tylenol?"
    Clark Griswold, from Christmas Vacation
     Reply
    Bigbadbikernerd promoted this comment kfonda was starred kfonda was unstarred
    Image of UGAdawg UGAdawg
    08/13/09

    In reply to US Pays More For Cellphone Service, Carriers Insist That We Are Not Getting Screwed
    I think a lot of the cost also comes from the fact that we get charged for incoming calls. In Europe you get charged for the calls you place and that's it. I know of only one plan that practices that called Alltel.
     Reply
    Bigbadbikernerd promoted this comment UGAdawg was starred UGAdawg was unstarred
    Image of Bigbadbikernerd Bigbadbikernerd
    08/14/09

    @ugadawg: US Cellular works like that too.
     Reply
    Bigbadbikernerd was starred Bigbadbikernerd was unstarred
    Image of GlenTen GlenTen
    08/13/09

    In reply to US Pays More For Cellphone Service, Carriers Insist That We Are Not Getting Screwed
    There is nothing wrong whatsoever with our nation's carrier services. I don't think itCALL FAILED
     Reply
    GlenTen was starred GlenTen was unstarred
    Image of Pixelologist, Esq. Pixelologist, Esq.
    08/13/09

    @GlenTen: Glen...? Glen...? You've cut out. Glen...?
     Reply
    FooSchnickens promoted this comment Pixelologist, Esq. was starred Pixelologist, Esq. was unstarred
    Image of FrankenPC FrankenPC
    08/13/09

    In reply to US Pays More For Cellphone Service, Carriers Insist That We Are Not Getting Screwed
    I did a study once of the BART system here in the Bay Area. The majority of the costs associated with extending their service lines was related to political payoffs. To lay down a mile of BART tracks, the BART officials would have to bribe every single entity along the line (businesses, churches, residents). THEN, fight in court over the possible (read:POSSIBLE) damage to a species of frog.

    Point being, if you are going to compare America to another nation, you first need to take into account the massive amount of greed inherent in our system. Planting and upgrading cell towers must be an enormous cost. ENORMOUS.
     Reply
    FrankenPC was starred FrankenPC was unstarred
    Image of se.blackheart se.blackheart
    08/13/09

    @FrankenPC: i dont wanna go to san jose anyway (yes, i know the way) bart needs to stay open past 12 fucking 30. so i can; get drunk, pass out in the bushes, wake up, stumble to the station and still get home somewhere around 4:30 in the morning.

    back on topic...operation costs for cell phone companies is miniscule compared to their profits. they're just fucking everyone in the butt because politicians in the united states are criminals that dont protect consumers, workers or patients.
     Reply
    FrankenPC promoted this comment se.blackheart was starred se.blackheart was unstarred
    Image of FrankenPC FrankenPC
    08/13/09

    @se.blackheart: LOL!@BART rant. I agree.
     Reply
    FrankenPC was starred FrankenPC was unstarred
    Image of phunnyballs phunnyballs
    08/13/09

    In reply to US Pays More For Cellphone Service, Carriers Insist That We Are Not Getting Screwed
    well judging by the fact that we are about 230x bigger (US is 9,826,630 km and NDs is 41,526) then you can instantly see why. US phone providers have to have a much more massive infastructure when they roll out a new service (such as upcoming 4G) it will take billions and billions to upgrade all the towers. however in the Netherlands it wont cost anywhere near that much.
     Reply
    phunnyballs was starred phunnyballs was unstarred
    Image of Lazzzara Lazzzara
    08/13/09

    @phunnyballs: and the massively bigger population doesn't factor in as well?
     Reply
    AmphetamineCrown promoted this comment Lazzzara was starred Lazzzara was unstarred
    Image of AmphetamineCrown AmphetamineCrown
    08/13/09

    @Lazzzara: Correct, it's a density issue. But, the NDs have a population density 5X higher than the US. See [en.wikipedia.org]
    .
    More density means more people to support a cell, means more economical deployment in "rural" areas.
     Reply
    AmphetamineCrown was starred AmphetamineCrown was unstarred
    Image of Yarr! Yarr!
    08/13/09

    @AmphetamineCrown: Although the argument completely falls apart when you compare the US to Sweden. The US has a pop density of 31/km^2, Sweden has 20/km^2. Yet the Swedes pay $137 per year vs. the americans who pay $635 per year.

    You're just getting screwed :)
     Reply
    AmphetamineCrown promoted this comment Yarr! was starred Yarr! was unstarred
    Image of Chewbenator Chewbenator
    08/13/09

    @Yarr!: Plus, with the geography of Sweden, it's not exactly easy to just spring up cell towers.
     Reply
    (Starman) AnalysisDialysis promoted this comment Chewbenator was starred Chewbenator was unstarred
    Image of AmphetamineCrown AmphetamineCrown
    08/13/09

    @Yarr!: The argument only falls apart if the percentage of Sweden covered is the same, or greater than, the US coverage phunnyballs showed. Oh, look... See how good their 3G coverage is: [www.gsmworld.com]
     Reply
    AmphetamineCrown was starred AmphetamineCrown was unstarred
    Image of kalleboo kalleboo
    08/14/09

    @AmphetamineCrown: That map is ooooold. Here's something updated after 2003: [www.tele2.se]
     Reply
    AmphetamineCrown promoted this comment kalleboo was starred kalleboo was unstarred
    Image of AmphetamineCrown AmphetamineCrown
    08/14/09

    @kalleboo: Eh, it was what I could find w/in the first five links provided by Google. That map is better, but still shows that they haven't got anywhere near the percentage of geographic area covered like the US.

    @e-friend: Maybe because the study was making a political point?
     Reply
    AmphetamineCrown was starred AmphetamineCrown was unstarred
    Image of Loonie Loonie
    08/13/09

    In reply to US Pays More For Cellphone Service, Carriers Insist That We Are Not Getting Screwed
    The study was based on "flawed assumptions" that "just don't make sense." The study also clearly hates America and freedom.
     Reply
    deanbmmv promoted this comment Loonie was starred Loonie was unstarred
    Image of deanbmmv deanbmmv
    08/13/09

    @Loonie: Because Netherlands is such an oppressive country?
    Pot is legal their, come on!
     Reply
    deanbmmv was starred deanbmmv was unstarred
    Image of r0cketman22 r0cketman22
    08/13/09

    In reply to US Pays More For Cellphone Service, Carriers Insist That We Are Not Getting Screwed
    I hate when carries stick ti to me.

    (typo in the post)
     Reply
    r0cketman22 was starred r0cketman22 was unstarred
    Image of Loonie Loonie
    08/13/09

    @@heyart: Yeah, all the looks you get from people, who are all like "dude, you've got a Texas Instruments stuck to you", and so forth.
     Reply
    (Starman) AnalysisDialysis promoted this comment Loonie was starred Loonie was unstarred
    Image of unibrow4o9 unibrow4o9
    08/13/09

    In reply to US Pays More For Cellphone Service, Carriers Insist That We Are Not Getting Screwed
    I read somewhere that most of the reason we pay so much is that our carriers have to build their own towers, where as in Europe a company built by company X has to be shared with company Y and Z. Is this true?
     Reply
    deanbmmv promoted this comment unibrow4o9 was starred unibrow4o9 was unstarred
    Image of deanbmmv deanbmmv
    08/13/09

    @unibrow4o9: In the UK they do deals to share the towers. Some build their own in certain spots if they won't better coverage though. Dunno for rest of EU
     Reply
    deanbmmv was starred deanbmmv was unstarred
    Image of Dave J. Dave J.
    08/13/09

    In reply to US Pays More For Cellphone Service, Carriers Insist That We Are Not Getting Screwed
    My first thought was that the US is so much larger than those other countries. I mean, you can drive across the Netherlands in a couple hours. Certainly that would have some sort of impact on cost of infrastructure, etc. People in rural Minnesota want to be able to call their cousin in Anchorage...well, that means you have to have service in both places, people to repair towers in both places, etc.
     Reply
    Dave J. was starred Dave J. was unstarred
    Image of Sir Gibler Sir Gibler
    08/13/09

    In reply to US Pays More For Cellphone Service, Carriers Insist That We Are Not Getting Screwed
    my AT&T plan is like a rapist that comes every month, my iPhone is the reach-around!
     Reply
    Sir Gibler was starred Sir Gibler was unstarred
    Image of marcus1060 marcus1060
    08/13/09

    In reply to US Pays More For Cellphone Service, Carriers Insist That We Are Not Getting Screwed
    Canada is even more expensive than the US.
     Reply
    Nick: I love Nick promoted this comment marcus1060 was starred marcus1060 was unstarred
    Image of Nick Nick
    08/13/09

    @marcus1060: canada is not real
     Reply
    Nick was starred Nick was unstarred
    Image of marcus1060 marcus1060
    08/13/09

    @Nick: I love Nick: Last time I checked it was, sorry.
     Reply
    marcus1060 was starred marcus1060 was unstarred
    Image of amābō tē?「Tayler」 amābō tē?「Tayler」
    08/13/09

    @marcus1060: are you kidding me? Canada is a myth. Just like unicorns and books.
     Reply
    Bigbadbikernerd promoted this comment amābō tē?「Tayler」 was starred amābō tē?「Tayler」 was unstarred
    Image of Bigbadbikernerd Bigbadbikernerd
    08/14/09

    @Holy shirt! a talking squirrel! 「Tayler」: And Apple Tablets!
     Reply
    Bigbadbikernerd was starred Bigbadbikernerd was unstarred
    Image of discounteggroll discounteggroll
    01/13/09

    In reply to Why Sports on a Widescreen TV is a Ripoff...Sort Of
    out of all the sports they could have used, they chose baseball?


    I'm not hating on baseball in any way, but when it comes to getting the most screen real estate to see more action and excitement that you normally wouldn't, baseball doesn't really take the cake


    shit...now I'm hungry.

     Reply
    discounteggroll was starred discounteggroll was unstarred
    Image of ZLevee ZLevee
    01/13/09

    In reply to Why Sports on a Widescreen TV is a Ripoff...Sort Of
    It's not just sports - all HD shows (late night talk shows, sitcoms, etc.) try to keep action out of the side areas.
     Reply
    ZLevee was starred ZLevee was unstarred
    Image of Serolf Divad Serolf Divad
    01/13/09

    In reply to Why Sports on a Widescreen TV is a Ripoff...Sort Of
    That's some pretty lame cherry-picking of images. I mean, seriously, when's the last time you've seen so few football players on screen at th same time? Do you really thing the basketball players are grouped that tightly when there's a fast break? Also, this completely ignores the Hi-def resolution issue.


    I'm not a sports fan, but just this weekend I finally got around to getting HD converter boxes for my cable. And I set it all up just before the Baltimore Ravens / Tennessee Titans game. All I can say is that if I were a big sports fan I would have done this ages ago, because it was everything I imagined it would be. The images on my 22" LCD TV were spectacularly crisp and vibrant. It's nice to be able to read names on uniforms, even from a distance. It was as close to being there as you're likely to get until some sort of credible 3D component is added.

     Reply
    Serolf Divad was starred Serolf Divad was unstarred
    Image of qbrad qbrad
    01/13/09

    In reply to Why Sports on a Widescreen TV is a Ripoff...Sort Of
    How else are you going to see the ruckus that's going on between two strangely coloured and painted humans that aren't on the actual game field?
     Reply
    qbrad was starred qbrad was unstarred
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