How to resolve issues with internet service speeds
“This morning it took about four minutes to download the newspaper,” a reader wrote. “Usually, it’s only seconds.”
Neither of us could figure it out, so he called his internet service, Xfinity. They said the problem was his wiring. But why, he wondered, would his download speed be 20 Mbps one day and 500 Mbps the next? After a runaround, he gave up on Xfinity and signed up for AT&T’s fiber-optics service. He’s very happy with it.
I like AT&T, too, but I switched to Xfinity last summer when I found an unbeatable deal: internet service for $5 a month and cell service for $15 a month. But I had a heck of a time getting Xfinity to acknowledge the deal, which I found at AllConnect.com. The problem wasn’t solved until I went to the local Xfinity store, which urged me go to their corporate office 25 minutes away. Nothing else works, they said. Phone calls are a big waste of time. They were right. The corporate office fixed everything.
TARGETING AMAZON
To compete with Amazon Prime, Target is offering Target Circle 360, which offers unlimited delivery and rush-shipping service to members for $99 annually, or $49 if you sign up between April 7 and May 18.
I still prefer Amazon Prime for $139, which has a lot more benefits. They also sell stuff I don’t see elsewhere, and the price is usually better. Besides, I hate to add one more Target box to the delivery pile since I live next door to them. The Amazon pile is huge enough. In New York, for example, 1.5 million Amazon packages are delivered daily. If you could stack them, you’d get a one million-foot tower. That’s 688 Empire State Buildings on top of each other.
On the other hand, online
Honda President Toshihiro Mibe said the companies share common values and could create “synergies” in facing their formidable rivals.
The world’s automakers are rapidly shifting toward electric vehicles, focusing on batteries and motors instead of gas engines, as concerns grow about emissions and climate change.
But Japanese automakers have fallen behind rivals such as Tesla of the U.S. and BYD of China in developing electric vehicles, partly because they have historically been so successful with combustion engine vehicles.
Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s largest automaker, has often said the world is not ready for a complete shift to the new technology, in part because of the lack of a charging infrastructure, and instead has pushed hybrids, which have a gas engine in addition to an electric motor.
But Toyota is also expected to aggressively deliver on an electric-vehicle push in coming years.
Nissan is relatively ahead among Japanese automakers because it was among the first to come out with an electric vehicle with its Leaf, which went on sale in late 2010.
High expectations for the Nissan-Honda agreement were reflected in sharp increases in the stock prices of both companies on Thursday after a Japanese media report said such a deal might be in the works.
Their shares continued to rise Friday, with Nissan finishing 3.2% higher and Honda rising 1.7%. The agreement was announced after trading closed in Tokyo.
The executives said no mutual capital ownership is involved in the agreement for now, but the companies may look into the possibility down the road.
“How we can raise our competitiveness is what we are determined to pursue,” Uchida said.