• Welcome to OGBoards 10.0, keep in mind that we will be making LOTS of changes to smooth out the experience here and make it as close as possible functionally to the old software, but feel free to drop suggestions or requests in the Tech Support subforum!

Net Neutrality - thoughts?

To your point LK, currently I have cable and internet through BVU. It's a local utility and cable/internet company.. Cable is much cheaper than comparable Comcast. Internet is great with fiber network and speeds up to 1gbps. Everyone I know in this area that has BVU as an option uses it..
 
Good info. Bottom line is that as a customer with X internet package I don't cost more to the ISP whether I'm a heavy Netflix user or someone that doesn't stream much. Is that right?

Yes and no. The issue isn't really in what is known as "Last Mile" (i.e - the portion of the internet that end users connect to).

Where we start to see issues is at the interconnection points, where traffic is moved from one network to another. The brilliance of the way the internet works is that it's nothing more than a series of individual networks which connect to each other at key points, and allow traffic to shared from one end to the other. Think of it as a giant Interstate highway system - if I am in eastern North Carolina and I want to get to Atlanta I find my way through my local street system to the nearest large pipe (I-95) and then go until I reach the appropriate exchange and switch to another large pipe (I-20) and follow that as close to my final destination as I can before departing again on to smaller local networks of streets.

Until recently, all networks largely generated the same amount of data - so you had synchronous flow of data between networks and it was easy for everyone to play nicely together (i.e - the same number of cars were heading from NC to GA as there were in reverse). But now, the rise of digital media has created serious mismatches in the volume of various networks. If every car coming down I-95 was headed to GA ... who should be responsible to build the extra exit ramps, and who should be responsible for adding extra capacity on the first sections of I-20 to handle the traffic? Right now there is no clue direction on that, and you see squabbles constantly between the backend carriers on who is responsible for handling these interchanges and the build out required to support them.

Regulating internet providers as a utility gives the FCC the ability to arbitrate these situations and guarantee that the way the internet has always worked (all traffic from all networks able to reach all other networks) isn't disrupted by new technologies which are changing the topography of the networks.
 
http://www.digitaltrends.com/web/net-neutrality-in-jeopardy-trump-administration/


Net neutrality could be on the chopping block. The principle that any internet service provider must permit access to any content regardless of source, net neutrality may be threatened by president-elect Donald Trump’s new administration. Before the election, Trump called net neutrality a “top-down power grab,” using it as a prime example when he promised to “reform the entire regulatory code” in order to “eliminate our most intrusive regulations.” No one really knows if those words were just campaign talk or if as President Trump will push to dismantle the policy, according to The Washington Post, but the signs point to net neutrality coming to an end.

Without net neutrality, internet service providers (ISPs) could freely control the amount of bandwidth allotted to content providers. Rather than allow consumers free and equal access to all websites, with controlled access Time Warner Cable, Comcast, AT&T, and other ISPs could vary the download speed of specific websites, demand payment from high traffic, high-bandwidth content sites — Hello, Netflix, and free porn, for example — and even block sites. Net neutrality prohibits those restrictive practices.

http://fortune.com/2016/11/21/trump-net-neutrality-fcc/

Jeff Eisenach, an economist who has been on Verizon’s payroll, and Mark Jamison, who formerly worked on Sprint’s lobbying team and now heads the University of Florida’s Public Utility Research Center, on Monday were named to Trump’s “agency landing team” for the Federal Communications Commission.
 
The saving grace may be that Netflix supports net neutrality. People will listen to them over cable providers.
 
Trump and Republicans are wrong here.

Better populist move is break up regional ISP fiefdoms, and encourage competition. We'd have privacy, access, speed and cost found in Europe and Asia. This would not only be popular but boost economy.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk
 
Trump and Republicans are wrong here.

Better populist move is break up regional ISP fiefdoms, and encourage competition. We'd have privacy, access, speed and cost found in Europe and Asia. This would not only be popular but boost economy.

Sent from my SM-G900V using Tapatalk

How so? The concern is money, not people. By that measure, they're right.
 
I think of the internet more as a utility than a commercial product. Imagine how shitty our lives would be if water and electricity were seen as commercial products. Well, in fact you only have to watch the documentary Flow to see how that is already happening - here is trailer


Trump broke off from Republicans by being a populist "people's President." This is an opportunity to demonstrate that the "bad guy" isn't always the government, but sometimes greedy corporations from whom the people need to be freed.
 
He doesn't honestly believe that though. Republicans definitely don't.

The Internet is clearly a utility at this point. It blows my mind how Republicans don't see that faster internet like in Europe and even some developing countries would be a huge boon for business at all levels.

Hell, if we could procrastinate on these boards faster, we'd get more work done.
 
He doesn't honestly believe that though. Republicans definitely don't.

The Internet is clearly a utility at this point. It blows my mind how Republicans don't see that faster internet like in Europe and even some developing countries would be a huge boon for business at all levels.

Hell, if we could procrastinate on these boards faster, we'd get more work done.

"better infrastructure we could all benefit from" vs "line pockets of giant corporations" is not a battle republicans lose
 
Well, there are isolated cases, but if you look at the FCC’s own records, there are only scattered anecdotes to support this.

And the argument I have made is that, in order to justify preemptive regulation of all 4,462 Internet service providers, you should have pretty concrete evidence of an overwhelming market failure.

But, secondly, the other argument I would make is that the hypothetical is a classic question of competition and consumer protection law.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fcc-chair-ajit-pai-explains-wants-scrap-net-neutrality/
 
Back
Top