Finally back online

after 2 weeks offline to move. Yahoo BB, our provider needed that long to transfer the service!! why? Because they have to go through NTT which owns the lines and to which Yahoo pays fees. NTT has fought tooth and nail to monopolize the industry. Just 4-5 years ago, Japan had the highest internet prices in the world because NTT had a legal monopoly. They even tried to limit ADSL so that people would be forced to use NTT's obsolete DSL technology.

Surprisingly, the Japanese government stopped that nonsense, and now Japan has one of the highest broadband usage rates in the world and has very reasonable access prices. Of course, one very strongly suspects that if NTT's competitors had been primarily foreign companies that the monopoly would never have been broken.

Anyway, the bottom line is, as usual, NTT is up to its old anti-competitive monopolizing tricks to punish Yahoo BB (owned by Softbank) and its customers. Direct customers of NTT can get service transferred immediately.

19 May: I have to correct this. I was told by an acquaintance that the 2 week delay does not occur with other providers. It is something that Yahoo BB does. There may be others, but this type of horrible service seems to be Yahoo BB's unique way of treating its customers. Moral: Don't use Yahoo BB.