Author Topic: FCC Plans December Vote to Kill Net Neutrality Rules  (Read 1225 times)

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Offline endicom

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FCC Plans December Vote to Kill Net Neutrality Rules
« on: November 20, 2017, 01:07:04 pm »
Bloomberg
Todd Shields
Nov. 15, 2017

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission next month is planning a vote to kill Obama-era rules demanding fair treatment of web traffic and may decide to vacate the regulations altogether, according to people familiar with the plans.

The move would reignite a years-long debate that has seen Republicans and broadband providers seeking to eliminate the rules, while Democrats and technology companies support them. The regulations passed in 2015 bar broadband providers such as AT&T Inc. and Comcast Corp. from interfering with web traffic sent by Google, Facebook Inc. and others.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, chosen by President Donald Trump, in April proposed gutting the rules and asked for public reaction. The agency has taken in more than 22 million comments on the matter.

More... https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-11-15/killing-net-neutrality-rules-is-said-readied-for-december-vote

Offline driftdiver

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Re: FCC Plans December Vote to Kill Net Neutrality Rules
« Reply #1 on: November 20, 2017, 01:18:22 pm »
I've always been confused by this issue.   Its so full of misinformation and outright lies that I don't know what is true.

One thing I do know, if the 'broadband' providers are in support of something then its bad for the consumer.  They want to kill the rules which means our service will go down and cost will go up.
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Offline endicom

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Re: FCC Plans December Vote to Kill Net Neutrality Rules
« Reply #2 on: November 20, 2017, 01:53:16 pm »
I've always been confused by this issue.   Its so full of misinformation and outright lies that I don't know what is true.

One thing I do know, if the 'broadband' providers are in support of something then its bad for the consumer.  They want to kill the rules which means our service will go down and cost will go up.


The free-market approach to abuses by the providers is to drop any barriers to there being more providers. Competition would then sort things out.

The internet is being treated as was the airwaves. The excuse for government control of the airwaves was limited 'bandwidth.' Bandwidth for the internet is increasing.


Offline Ancient

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Re: FCC Plans December Vote to Kill Net Neutrality Rules
« Reply #3 on: November 20, 2017, 02:32:20 pm »
Not a fan of net neutral, but Comcast also just doubled their price with no other choice.  I’d love to see Comcast get messed over... they are a pseudo monopoly and abusing it.  Can’t get ATT in this area and everything else isn’t a real broadband internet.

Offline endicom

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Re: FCC Plans December Vote to Kill Net Neutrality Rules
« Reply #4 on: November 20, 2017, 04:19:36 pm »
I’d love to see Comcast get messed over... they are a pseudo monopoly and abusing it.


Do you know what's holding other providers back?


Online Bigun

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Re: FCC Plans December Vote to Kill Net Neutrality Rules
« Reply #5 on: November 20, 2017, 05:39:29 pm »

The free-market approach to abuses by the providers is to drop any barriers to there being more providers. Competition would then sort things out.

The internet is being treated as was the airwaves. The excuse for government control of the airwaves was limited 'bandwidth.' Bandwidth for the internet is increasing.

Absolutely agree!  888high58888
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Offline InHeavenThereIsNoBeer

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Re: FCC Plans December Vote to Kill Net Neutrality Rules
« Reply #6 on: November 20, 2017, 06:28:38 pm »

The free-market approach to abuses by the providers is to drop any barriers to there being more providers. Competition would then sort things out.

The internet is being treated as was the airwaves. The excuse for government control of the airwaves was limited 'bandwidth.' Bandwidth for the internet is increasing.

The problem here is that some of those barriers are practical/physical.  How many data lines can practically be run under the streets and to our homes, and does the cost to lay in a new network constitute a significant barrier to entry?

A potential solution, which some of us are lucky enough to enjoy an approximation of today, is a limited number of "last mile" carriers who are forced not to abuse their near monopoly power to compete in other markets.  For example, if my ISP wanted to start their own video streaming project, they should not be allowed to throttle Netflix to give themselves an unfair advantage (whether they should be able to take advantage of the fact that they can put their servers right next to my incoming connection in their data center or whether they should have to throttle their own service to compete "fairly" is an interesting question).

My solution is a small number of last mile carriers who just don't get into additional services at all as a condition of their near monopoly status.  I pay them to send ones and zeroes between my house and the internet backbone, and that's it.  We're not going to have pure free markets in everything, so where we can't we should limit the scope as much as possible.  Break the TV channels and VoIP out of my ISP package, and let the market compete for them, while recognizing that the last mile is something we do have to deal with.

BTW, anyone interested in this stuff may enjoy Flash Boys by Michael Lewis.
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Online Weird Tolkienish Figure

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Re: FCC Plans December Vote to Kill Net Neutrality Rules
« Reply #7 on: November 20, 2017, 08:13:17 pm »
The problem here is that some of those barriers are practical/physical.  How many data lines can practically be run under the streets and to our homes, and does the cost to lay in a new network constitute a significant barrier to entry?

A potential solution, which some of us are lucky enough to enjoy an approximation of today, is a limited number of "last mile" carriers who are forced not to abuse their near monopoly power to compete in other markets.  For example, if my ISP wanted to start their own video streaming project, they should not be allowed to throttle Netflix to give themselves an unfair advantage (whether they should be able to take advantage of the fact that they can put their servers right next to my incoming connection in their data center or whether they should have to throttle their own service to compete "fairly" is an interesting question).

My solution is a small number of last mile carriers who just don't get into additional services at all as a condition of their near monopoly status.  I pay them to send ones and zeroes between my house and the internet backbone, and that's it.  We're not going to have pure free markets in everything, so where we can't we should limit the scope as much as possible.  Break the TV channels and VoIP out of my ISP package, and let the market compete for them, while recognizing that the last mile is something we do have to deal with.

BTW, anyone interested in this stuff may enjoy Flash Boys by Michael Lewis.

I agree with you on this. I also think technology cooperative can provide this sort of thing.