this post was submitted on 22 Sep 2023
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xkcd
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Remember when every phone on the house had it's own proprietary cable ? Truly horrible times.
Remember when you had to rent your phone from the phone company?
Imagine if service providers still did that now, and you’d have to rent a special box from the internet company to access the internet…or one from the TV company to watch shows and movies. What a world.
You still have this in some parts of EU.
The joke is that this is the state of American TV and Internet.
Sure some Cable ISPs let you bring your own modem, and Verizon Fios used to let you provision the Ethernet handoff of the ONT to go direct into your own router (if you chat up the install tech and are able to test connectivity with them there)…but the majority of users rent their modems and cable boxes.
How bizarre.
Sony Ericson's break-off cable was fun to use!