Personal Telco gets some ink
The Willamette Week gave us some space in their “How to Live Cheap in Portland” piece this week. I think it does a good job on the “modelling good behavior” front and not being too much “these dudes will sprinkle the magic pixie dust on you (and give you free stuff)” that we sometimes see. Michael Weinberg is quoted thusly:
“If you have Internet, share it. If you don’t, and your neighbors do, maybe talk about how you can share the cost”
The one place that could have used improvement is in the sense that you might be doing something against your terms of service by sharing. Willamette Week says:
“Sharing connections may violate some fine print in Comcast and Qwest’s service contracts.”
What that leaves out is the choice that the subscriber has of an ISP where they would not be violating any fine print. That is, if an ISP is not giving you the freedom you want or need, stop giving them your money and give it to an ISP that does respect your freedom. You usually (though not always) have a choice. And, of course, some carriers would like to see you have less choice. We think you should have more.
