I think I’ve known Doug longer than those in VoIP, recalling his days from SkyCache. Now that Doug is writing on his own, and unencumbered from the shackles and chains of others he’s never been more on.
Take his tale about the shabby and no excuse for bad service he got from Verizon that required the Virginia SCC to intervene. Seven days to fix dial tone?
There are also other posts about his issues with the second largest landline company in the USA that are worthy of a read.
His key point about the declining state of service (both customer and technical) in the USA is spot on. I get better service in the UK as a pre-paid customer than I do back home as a post paid customer. How so? Questions answered and problems fixed at the first tier level with nary a wait on hold, a line at the shop or a person who needs to put me on hold to check what they can do.
But it’s his post about the 99 cent netbook that caught my eye. Doug correctly points out that the brand and model of netbook is hardly going to scare anyone. For those who want to buy a netbook as a kids present this is a good deal, as the service will be paid for anyway, but for really powerful models, you won’t be getting them for this price. As a high end, daily netbook user, the contract service charge would be there anyway, but the difference with Sprint or Verizon vs. an AT&T netbook deal is you’re not only locked into the service as there’s no “SIM” to move to a better netbook.
Doug Mohney has been writing at least since I was in high school. I remember reading him back in the days of Boardwatch–back when it covered dialup bulletin board services and there was no such thing as the “Internet” as far as the vast majority of people were concerned. In fact, I remember reading in Boardwatch when he became part of SkyCache 😉