Don’t allow telecoms firms to drag Ja backwards

[psilos]

No issues with phone obsessions as I said buying a phone when you can't afford to buy credit for the same phone makes no practical sense. If you have it and can afford to do both more power to you "beta testers" as you benefit the rest of us.

Its similar to going to the Independence parties but can't afford to pay the school fee for your children or yourself. Dumb dumb dumb.

[King_Jay16]

No issues with phone obsessions as I said buying a phone when you can't afford to buy credit for the same phone makes no practical sense. If you have it and can afford to do both more power to you "beta testers" as you benefit the rest of us.

Its similar to going to the Independence parties but can't afford to pay the school fee for your children or yourself. Dumb dumb dumb.

That I agree with. It's a never ending cycle, same with Government spending $50mil on Gala then turn around seh them have no money to run the country.

[datdread]

....a phone when you can't afford to buy credit for the same phone makes no practical sense.

Ahhhh I see the problem here.

This was an attempt to appeal to commons sense.

Nothing "common" sensible about obsessions at all.

With regards to buying unaffordable items and being the obsessor: Possession will be of more importance than usage.

MOST NOTEABLE OBSESSIVE INSTITUTIONS: Banks....'dezzz ni***s jus' loooooove money...and apparently we love the Banks for that

The Human psyche is a mutable thing.

The one size fits all mentality we LOVE to enforce is fruitless to say the least...

[psilos]

@datdread, excellent response. You are clearly an intelligent individual. Didn't think about the Sociology part of us Humans at all. Rhyme or reason sometimes plays no part in one's behaviour.

[Skele Drew]

@Satan Dude. Stop getting it twisted and making baseless assumptions. Go get some facts before you talk.

Anyone who says that Bitcoin is "big" is delusional. I am sorry but making some off-handed predictions is no substitute for a proper argument, much less a sensible forecast. In fact , Android is big for the same reason that cryptocurrencies aren't. Android is backed by a powerful corporation (Google)

What kind of a rock do you live under? There may be 101 articles out there written by people who want to see Bitcoins disappear, and maybe that's all you're reading in order to confirm/support your beliefs. But know there're also 101 articles that say why it's the next big thing, and if you read a few from each side and actually use your brain to come to a logical decision, you'll even see why it's important. Here's one article about why Bitcoin matters. Go read it.

And my "predictions" may sound off-hand and lack a logical argument, but that's usually because it'd probably take way too long to outline all the sources I've read/listened, how I've thought about it, etc. Needless to say, my "predictions" were right not just once, but several times. Yeah, I actually think about this stuff, not just read/hear something and jump to conclusions. And Android isn't big because Google promoted/bought it. It's big because it's (mostly) an open system that anyone can go into and tinker with to make it their own. Look at how many places some version of Android can be found now. From smartphones and tablets to TVs and cars and other embedded devices. For more reading pleasure see here ("Even Google was blindsided...") and here ("Key reasons of Android's success...").

In all things it's just a matter of time. Some just take off more quickly than others. You speak of Desktop Linux as a failure, but it'll have it's day soon. Lucky for you that you didn't say Linux in general failed, because majority of the servers - and some of the largest businesses - in the world today are running Linux, and don't forget too that Android is based on Linux. The main reason I think why Linux hasn't taken desktops by storm yet is because of distro fragmentation and most hardware manufacturers not writing drivers for it. But of course all that is slowly changing as more people get to know what Linux is and manufacturers are forced to provide better support. This guy's experience is very similar to mine a few days ago when I did a fresh install. Windows is popular because it comes preinstalled on the vast majority of PCs, and Apple because they control both h/w and s/w and keep it all locked down so their "bottom line" is always protected.

What happen? All that Bitcoin trading affecting your reading comprehension skills? Look in the quote you took from me. "The obvious solution would b to go to an American style plane, with something like unlimited talk/text/3g data, for something like 1000 to 2000 dollars a month."

First, I don't trade Bitcoin. I've never owned more than 0.005 BTC. I'm not even running a Bitcoin service right now or have my wallet anymore. But that doesn't stop me from seeing the potential. And as I previously stated, the unlimited talk/text/data thing will only fool people for so long. With wifi and smartphones becoming more widely accessible every day/month.year, more people are starting to wise up and move to Skype and Viber and Whatsapp and Hangouts. Take it from me: I'm here in the US and I can see what's going on first hand.

As I my earlier analogy put forward

Your analogy sucks. Laws are made by people, and when enough people say it must change, then it will. Whether through democracy, anarchy or a coup d'etat. Remember when everyone believed that the Earth was the center of the solar system? One man provided evidence that it wasn't and he was kept under house arrest by the church, which was pretty much the lawmaker at that time. But of course time and science prevailed and after enough people knew, they had to change their stance. Now who still says the Sun revolves around the Earth?

Those same forces regularly intervene to put the leash on technology, so that it does not destroy others - and itself See what happen with the First Dot-Com Boom in the late '90s. Technology got ahead off itself,got its leash yanked, and was putin its kennel for a couple of years.

Of course tech gets ahead of itself. If it didn't, then it would be the same and we'd be still hunting mammoths with stone clubs. And it's not technology that destroys, but the people who use it for such means. Tech isn't good or bad in itself, it's how you choose to use it.

And the internet, like air, IS free. I can pay for a can/bottle of air if I have special needs though. Servers alone do not the internet make; clients are a core part of it. And providers should only have the right to charge for and control services that originate from them. So ISPs shouldn't be giving preference to content, since they only provide internet access. Leave that to the actual content providers. I pay for you to allow me to use your road, not to tell me what vehicles can and cannot come to my house (now that's an analogy). Even if I want to bring in a couple tanks or an airplane it should be fine, as long as I pay enough to compensate for any damage they may cause. Then said provider needs to redesign/upgrade that road so tanks don't destroy it as easily in the future. Check out this video/site. It puts the issue very clearly for the less tech inclined, which you seem to be.

The problem with you computer geeks, is that you all live in your own fantasy world , where there are no people who earn minimum wage , worry about getting bus fare for their children to go to school, and can just put down their cheapo 3000JMD Samsungs and pick up an Android tablet right away. It doesn't work like that. We still live in a country where the minimum wage is 54USD a week , and people use Pardner Draw to as way to get additional money. Iff you want to get the Telecoms to back don - and stay down, then you are going to have to get the masses involved. And I am sorry but you guys sitting down and circle jerking yourselves about system specs is just a slap in the face of the ordinary Jamaican. I mean, you've got a 1st gen Android tablet, a high end gaming laptop, a high high end cell phone and a 35,000 dollar cell phone one theway - yet you can't put Digicel credit on your phone ?

Yes. I'm a proud geek and true techie at heart, so I love gadgets. FYI, I'm earning minimum wage right now ($7.50/hour) in my summer job, and I'm in college with no kids or woman to mind. That's not a fantasy. So I can blow my hard-earned cash however I want. But that doesn't mean I don't think before I buy and only buy within my means. I don't need to justify to anyone why I buy what I buy, but as I said before, I do think about it and justify the buy to myself. For example, the main reason I got a tablet was for class. It's got an extra battery in the keyboard dock, so I can keep going all day and a long way into the night before running for my charger. I've never seen my laptop as something for "high end gaming". I haven't played any games for a long time. I'm a programmer. What I have is a "high end" dev machine so I can use various VMs and environments without it overheating and snuffing out every few minutes. That means my productivity increases. Oh yeah, and I got it on eBay at a huge discount. And I also got the OPO not just for the specs, but also because of the price. I have no intention of ever buying a phone that costs over $400, so this was in my range. The screen is smaller than my tablet but still large enough to see well, so I bought a keyboard that I can use it in class instead of the tablet. And it's got lots of battery life, so it'll last quite a while. And of course it's a smartphone. Now that I've killed 2 birds/devices with one stone, I can sell my current phone and tablet and get back almost all I spent on the OPO. Better yet, these specs are so good that I won't need to upgrade again for several years. BTW, the Amaze is just over 1.5 years old and the tablet 2 years. In tech-speak, that's getting pretty old.

Regarding credit, when I was in Ja, my phone was never out of credit. Even here I still top up bimonthly to keep my account active and have credit when I come down. But lets see how happy you would be to fork out cash for plans here. I chose AT&T even before I came here as I learned that even though they're expensive as hell, they have the best coverage for where I was going and they're fully compatible with Digicel. Now let's see: I'm on their GoPhone prepaid, where you choose among 10 cents/minute, $2/day or $50/month. If you go $2/day and you talk just a few seconds everyday, you pay $365x2=$730/year. Or $50x12=$600/year. Or 10 cents talking and 20 cents for each text whether sent or recieved. Or use wifi which is available 99% of the time and is free (or as low as $30/month IF I had my own living space). Remember that I'm in college, NOT working. And I hardly communicate via phone. Guess which I chose (hint: I only have to topup every 3 months with $25)?

[RZA]

Here is an interesting article in todays Observer

http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/busin...issue_17348854

Here are a few snippets from said article by the telecoms providers which are plain lies & incorrect analogies.

"The providers, such as the Irish-based Digicel, say VOIPs users use their data resources without paying" This is a lie as users pay for the access in the form of mobile data charges


"He compared the situation to drilling an oil well, "and some hobo came along and say I am going to pipe into this tank, take your oil, pay you no money, because I have got customers that I want to sell that oil" This goes without saying its just a ridiculous comparison

Here is a sensible ministers quote:

But Dominica's telecommunications minister Ambrose George said the issue of net neutrality, in which the internet is seen as a whole of information sharing using varying types of data transmission "poses another interesting view point.

"Internet traffic is simply data, whether it is telephony, e-fax, text, audio, etc. Hence, there should not be any form of discrimination of data based on its origin or type or nature," he told the conference"

[Satanforce]

@Satan Dude. Stop getting it twisted and making baseless assumptions. Go get some facts before you talk.

Oh, you had replied.I didn't see.Its everything I had expected though. Iwill explain why ina few.

[Jamlynx]

Viber isn't the only VOIP app..there are many just check the google play store.Once phones passed the "dumbphone" phase and apps were available VOIP apps were an inevitable development.On the matter of bitcoin it is not the first digital currency there was Liberty Reserve,e-gold,Pecunix,etc and now there is c-gold and Perfectmoney.PerfectMoney actually pays interest like a bank.The problem with digital currencies is that the US govt is always trying to shut them down because they see them as a haven for money laundering.Liberty Reserve,one of the biggest is gone and it is likely that Bitcoin will suffer a similar fate as I gather it is being used for allot of illegal activities and money laundering.