Streaming movies or playing online games is costing some unsuspecting rural Alaskans thousands of dollars. While lack of rural broadband has been a hot-button issue in many areas, in Alaska a bigger issue is caps on how much data someone can use in a month, and penalties for going over. Alaskans who don't keep a close eye on their data are feeling it in their wallets when the bill comes, Jillian D'Onfro reports for Business Insider.
John Wallace, a Bethel resident who owns and runs Alaska Technologies, which services small businesses and nonprofits that can’t afford their own tech departments, told D'Onfro, “The average customer doesn’t have a clue what they’re doing.” Wallace has "collected a lot of horror stories.," D'Onfro writes. "There were the two girls who had unwittingly allowed Dropbox to continuously sync to their computers: They racked up a $3,500 overcharge in two weeks. One user’s virus protection got stuck on and it cost him $600. Wallace has heard people say, 'I was gaming and I got a little out of hand and I had to pay $2,800.' Once, two six-year-old girls accidentally spent $2,000 playing an online preschool game. Their mom was totally unaware what was going on, until she got the bill." (Read more)
Some say the problem is that one company, General Communications Inc., has a monopoly in rural Alaska. In October, the Federal Communications Commission approved GCI's purchase of NBC-affiliated television stations in Anchorage, Juneau, and Sitka, giving the company over-the-air television to go along with its existing statewide cable television, Internet, wireless, and telephone services, Rosemarie Alexander reports for Alaska Public Media.
"In its order, the FCC said GCI’s takeover of the television stations was in the public interest of local viewers," Alexander writes. "But a number of Alaska broadcasters opposed the buyout based on GCI’s near monopoly in cable television. The stations argued a distribution company as large as GCI could not compete fairly with traditional television stations." Broadcasters "filed a Petition to Deny with the FCC, comparing it to Comcast cable’s acquisition of television program producer NBC Universal. In that case the FCC required several conditions that limited competition between cable and broadcast television. Instead, the FCC granted GCI the licenses without any conditions." (Read more)
John Wallace, a Bethel resident who owns and runs Alaska Technologies, which services small businesses and nonprofits that can’t afford their own tech departments, told D'Onfro, “The average customer doesn’t have a clue what they’re doing.” Wallace has "collected a lot of horror stories.," D'Onfro writes. "There were the two girls who had unwittingly allowed Dropbox to continuously sync to their computers: They racked up a $3,500 overcharge in two weeks. One user’s virus protection got stuck on and it cost him $600. Wallace has heard people say, 'I was gaming and I got a little out of hand and I had to pay $2,800.' Once, two six-year-old girls accidentally spent $2,000 playing an online preschool game. Their mom was totally unaware what was going on, until she got the bill." (Read more)
Some say the problem is that one company, General Communications Inc., has a monopoly in rural Alaska. In October, the Federal Communications Commission approved GCI's purchase of NBC-affiliated television stations in Anchorage, Juneau, and Sitka, giving the company over-the-air television to go along with its existing statewide cable television, Internet, wireless, and telephone services, Rosemarie Alexander reports for Alaska Public Media.
"In its order, the FCC said GCI’s takeover of the television stations was in the public interest of local viewers," Alexander writes. "But a number of Alaska broadcasters opposed the buyout based on GCI’s near monopoly in cable television. The stations argued a distribution company as large as GCI could not compete fairly with traditional television stations." Broadcasters "filed a Petition to Deny with the FCC, comparing it to Comcast cable’s acquisition of television program producer NBC Universal. In that case the FCC required several conditions that limited competition between cable and broadcast television. Instead, the FCC granted GCI the licenses without any conditions." (Read more)
No comments:
Post a Comment