Pots is regulated under telecommunications services. Ilecs got broadband to be exempt from teleco regulations 25 years ago. Besides dial up is a tiny market and in most cases completely unavailable.
It’s available; people just don’t know about it. I asked the POTS supplier for ISDN. Answer: no. Called back later, spoke to someone else, answer: yes. It’s so rare that some of the telecom sales staff are not even aware of their own services.
Dialup ISPs are getting more centralised as the business shrinks. But I think there will always be some operating because they tend to be nationwide and not limited to an area code.
already covered this when I said this affects cell phones or you are using other’s wifi. As I already said, the Internet you are connecting to is affected even if you are avoiding paying for it personally.
Sure, but what’s the point? It’s not to get access to a faster service. If that’s your concern, then you can simply buy the higher business class service (and become part of the problem in exchange for being impeded by it).
It’s about not feeding tyranny. The public library (my means of access) would indeed be affected by the same business shenannigans, but if I am not paying for it then I am not feeding it. They lose my subscription fees for being bad players. That‘s the point.
This is an article about American laws. It doesn’t apply to Europe. It is a requirement because government, hospitals and in particular schools have switched to Internet for communication. I got a letter about an adjustment to my taxes which said, “login at this url to pay this bill”. My children’s notifications about, school calendars, school delays and buses are all text messages and emails.
I have a foot in both places. I have only been forced online in Europe, never in the US. I would like to hear more detail about being unable to pay your tax bill offline because that amounts to forced banking, something I thought was non-existent in the US, where legal tender is defined as having a right to pay debts in cash. If you are quite far from a tax office, I would more readily believe that. But even then, it was just a few years ago that I was able to pay a tax bill by snail-mailing a paper check. Is that option dead under some tax regime? Is it a local tax admin that refuses cash?
I’ve lost touch with US schools but I have read about the shitshow of primary and secondary schools handing out Google Chromebooks and requiring students to use them as well as requiring them to agree to Google’s ToS. Bus delay notifications sounds more like a convenience. People tend to confuse convenience with necessity in recent years. Tim Wu’s tyranny of convenience essay has not reached as many people as it should.