Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Monopoly

I'm extremely late posting today.

There's one thing I don't like about Pasadena: we have one cable company. A monopoly gets around to taking care of its customers whenever it feels like it.

When our cable isn't working, I have no online access. Satellite's an option, but it's much more expensive. I depend on the internet. Without it, I barely know what to do with myself.

Talk about a monopoly!

7 comments:

Tanya Breese said...

When I lived in San Diego we had only Cox Cable available. Now we have Direct TV, Dish Network and Comcast to chose from, but a monopoly on our phone line ugh! In our small area, Alltel has all the contracts. It's so not fair!

ben wideman said...

we've been pretty happy with our high speed connection through the phone line. I know, it's kind of old school, and maybe not quite as fast as with cable - but a fraction of the cost and it doesn't tie up the phone line either.

marley said...

This is true the world over...

USelaine said...

My internet service provider is local and friendly, without all the razzle-dazzle rebate fast-talking package selling. If you have SBC as your telephone monopoly and are in California, and live within three miles of a company substation (or whatever they're called) you can get very decent DSL from Pacific.net, based up here in Ukiah. There must be any number of ISPs with rights to provide such a service over the phone lines.

Jim Klenke said...

SBC works well for us for online access and Direct TV instead of cable, even though I only get Direct TV for the Sunday NFL Ticket. I never noticed phone or electric lines until I started taking photos, they are everywhere.

Unknown said...

I love the abstract pattern of the cables and pole in this photo.

Petrea Burchard said...

Oh, Tanya, I'd be jealous if it weren't bad for my health. As for phones, we freed ourselves from our landlines. Big money saver and no more AT&T. Glad to be rid of them.

Good suggestion, Ben. Of course you're talking to a high-speed internet addict, here.

Sorry to hear that, Marley.

Elaine, we're glad to be rid of SBC too. THAT's a mistake I won't make again.

Jim, me too! Isn't it funny how we tune those things out? Then I raise the camera to take a shot and there's all that stuff in the way that I never noticed before.

Stef, thank you. Oh yes, the photo! That's what we were talking about, wasn't it? I like it, too.