Thou shalt not question Comcast

[Matthew Gillen]

jkinz-+hffLmS/kj4 at public.gmane.org wrote:
> It is clear that comcast/(all ISP's) cannot afford to sell
> residential services if customers can effectively "resell"
> (or give away) those same "services" to others.

I don't buy this either.  They can always undersell you, since they are the
upstream provider.  And it's infeasible for Joe Random customer to "resell"
the service in any way other than dial-up.  (hopeful monopoly-busting note for
future: perhaps one of WiMax or the new "White Space" the FCC freed up will
become a game-changer on this front.  One can only hope).

I actually looked into doing a small co-op ISP thing when I first got DSL way
back when, and was excited with all the cool stuff you can do with linux.  I
came close to buying a PCI card that had four (or maybe eight) modems on it,
so I could support my neighbors via dial-up (my DSL connection would be the
upstream).  But I couldn't find a way to even come close to breaking even.
I'd need extra phone lines, the cost of the modem card, etc.  I quickly got to
the point where my neighbors would have better connectivity and cheaper if
they just got DSL themselves.

Matt