Obama wants to make the internet a utility

We can start in 2018 by giving the house and senate back to the democrats. That's hard for me to say as I'm a registered republican but, since Trump took office I have lost all faith in the GOP. Net Neutrality is now my number one issue, everything else doesn't matter near as much. I work in IT and it is just that important to me, we canceled cable 3 years ago and I don't want my internet bill to start looking like my old cable bill.

I know Trump trashed net neutrality during the campaign and I almost voted for Hillary because of it but, figured she'd do the same thing with all the money she took. So I went with the guy that was going to kill Obamacare and restore the middle class and, we see how that is working out. So, it is now net neutrality or nothing for me. You want my vote then you better support net neutrality. If you don't, I'll never vote for you. Even if Jesus Christ himself ran for office, he better support net neutrality or I will not vote for him. Maybe it is crazy to throw all my chips into one issue like this but, this is how I currently feel.

We can't give these greedy telecoms the unregulated right to screw over the American people because, they have proven time and time again that they will do just that every chance they get. I'll even go a step farther and say that it is time for telecom's regional monopolies to come crumbling down. It is basically the Bell Systems monopoly all over again just at a regional/local level and enough is enough.

RollTide1017 said:

I work in IT and it is just that important to me,.

Click to expand...

We got caught up in issues at work before related to the lack of Net Neutrality rules. We had a 1Gb Cogent internet line that was giving us all kinds of issues connecting to 3rd party sites that were required for our business to run. This was because the peering points to Cogent were maxed out due to Netflix. Verizon, ATT, and Comcast were refusing to increase peering bandwidth with them. They all had the equipment sitting there. All it would have taken is a $200 cable. We had to cancel Cogent and order another provider. In real world costs it was 10's of thousands of dollars if you look at the cancelation costs and the price difference vs the new provider.

On a side note at the time Netflix had developed a network appliance that ISPs could sit in local cities that would allow Netflix customers to stream from it vs Netflix servers long distances away. Netflix was giving this away for free to help ISPs manage network capacity. ISPs refused (the only ones I could see that use it are in Europe.) They would rather have strong arm Netflix into buying internet connectivity from all of them vs their provider of choice. This is exactly what happened in the end. Don't let ISPs tell you this is about managing network capacity. They can pump so much bandwidth down a strand of fiber now days it isn't even funny. This is all about money.

So what do you think would happen to small sites like Tidefans.com if all of a sudden entire parts of the internet couldn't access it and the only option was to buy internet connectivity from all possible providers?

RollTide1017 said:

We can't give these greedy telecoms the unregulated right to screw over the American people because, they have proven time and time again that they will do just that every chance they get. I'll even go a step farther and say that it is time for telecom's regional monopolies to come crumbling down. It is basically the Bell Systems monopoly all over again just at a regional/local level and enough is enough.

Click to expand...

Serious question--Could Comcast stay in business without monopolies? Their service may well be great (I'll find out, supposedly, on Tuesday), but sweet Christ, their customer service department is a travesty. I was trying to get a quoted price explained, and this person haltingly said a bunch of words that literally made no sense. And then I got put on hold for 15 minutes. Then they hung up on me.

And every I've talked to says that is the norm, not the exception.

But yeah, RT2017, I agree. Net Neutrality (and the host of associated privacy issues) should be major concerns for people, they are flying under the radar largely because of the Orange One's antics.

I have suspected for some time that the main reason the GOP backed Trump--and the reason they're so reluctant to address his issues head on, is that they were hoping that he would distract the public while they pursued their own agenda. In the words of W, they misunderestimated Trump.

Good article on the general subject of the government regulation of telecoms. While many of us agree with the government providing some basic protections from bad actors in industry, we have to be careful that the bad actors aren't just using the regulations to stifle innovation and competition in order to protect their old business model or give them the advantage in new markets. That's a fine line at times and all attempts at new regulations should be looked upon skeptically and scrutinized for "unintended" consequences.

https://reason.com/archives/2017/06/11/we-could-have-had-cellphones-f

There's a Massive Protest Happening Today—Online More than 80K websites oppose FCC plan

http://www.newser.com/story/245602/...nt=17636354902134434396&utm_campaign=20170712

There's a massive protest happening Wednesday—and it's taking place entirely online. CNBC reports more than 80,000 websites—including Amazon, Facebook, Google, Netflix, Reddit, Airbnb, and Twitter—are taking part in a "Day of Action" to oppose the FCC's plan to weaken net neutrality protections. The FCC voted in May to reverse 2015 regulations that prevent Comcast, AT&T, and other internet service providers from blocking certain websites or slowing down or speeding up specific content. While the FCC argues regulation hurts innovation, the organizers of the protest—which includes messages on participating websites—accuse the FCC of caving to "lobbyists from telecom companies in pursuit of more power." Here's what else you need to know:

I don't understand why it took so long for this to happen. Net neutrality has been under attack since the day Pai took over. Why some of these big website remained quiet until now makes no sense. Not that it would have mattered earlier in the year, just like it won't matter now. We are hopeless to stop this because Pai is a paid hack who is an ex Verizon lawyer. His vote plus the 2 GOP votes, who will never flip, guarantee that net neutrality is dead. Just more greatness from the Trump revolution.

Guess it is a nice gesture to finally see people care, even if it is too little too late.

Why can't MS, Apple, Google, Walmart (owns Vudu), Sony and Netflix join forces to lobby against the ISPs. The only way to beat them is to pay the politicians more then they do, since politicians only vote for their bank accounts.

The poster formerly known as RollTide1017

http://reason.com/archives/2017/07/18/net-neutrality-supporters-should-actuall

If you went on the internet at all last week, you could not help but miss some of the web's most popular websites publicizing their campaigns that defend the Obama-era telecommunications regulation known as the Open Internet Order (OIO). Last Wednesday, tech heavyweights like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, and even Pornhub held a "Day of Action" to support the controversial FCC rules. The websites bombarded users with blog posts encouraging folks to contact their representatives and popup messages bemoaning the future of a slow and tiered internet. But ironically, these websites' stated goals are in direct contradiction of the regulations that they ostensibly support.

Click to expand...

NationalTitles16 said:

http://reason.com/archives/2017/07/18/net-neutrality-supporters-should-actuall

Click to expand...

that article does exactly what nearly all anti-net neutrality articles do, it tries to claim that since we haven't had problems with carriers causing havoc prior to 2015 that we don't need the FCC to regulate while neglecting to mention that massive sea change that occurred in 2014 with the Verizon versus FCC case. Nice huge lie of omission there Reason. They need to bring Radley Balko back as an editor

Jon said:

it tries to claim that since we haven't had problems with carriers causing havoc prior to 2015

Click to expand...

That claim itself is false. The whole Netflix/Cogent/Comcast stuff happened in what 2013/2014?

2003TIDE said:

That claim itself is false. The whole Netflix/Cogent/Comcast stuff happened in what 2013/2014?

Click to expand...

IIRC that case was 13 and what held it all up was the regs that the Vz/FCC case effectively ended. A good point that Reason seemed to not notice as it didn't work in their narrative. Sad how far Reason has slid in the last few years. I expect more of them

CrimsonNagus said:

Why can't MS, Apple, Google, Walmart (owns Vudu), Sony and Netflix join forces to lobby against the ISPs. The only way to beat them is to pay the politicians more then they do, since politicians only vote for their bank accounts.

Click to expand...

So, in one corner, we have the 2 old telecom (former) monopolies (with some minor tweaks) vs Amazon and Google.

Who are routinely accused of becoming monopolies.

Spy vs Spy.

(If you don't know what that means, ask the Amazon or Google talking gizmo some of you have in your house what it means. Then tell me how much you treasure your privacy. I need a good laugh.)

Whoops.

98.5% of unique net neutrality comments oppose Ajit Pai’s anti-Title II plan

A study funded by Internet service providers has found something that Internet service providers really won't like.

The overwhelming majority of people [98.5%] who wrote unique comments to the Federal Communications Commission want the FCC to keep its current net neutrality rules and classification of ISPs as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act, according to the study released today.

The study (available here) was conducted by consulting firm Emprata and funded by Broadband for America, whose members include AT&T, CenturyLink, Charter, CTIA-The Wireless Association, Comcast, NCTA–The Internet & Television Association, the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA), and USTelecom.

Click to expand...

Well, I'm sure this unexpected finding will move Ajit and force him to reconsid--

The deadline for submitting comments is today. Pai has indicated that the raw number of comments opposing his plan will not cause him to change his mind.

Click to expand...

Ugh. Pai is a despicable human. He would be the first of Trump's appointments I'd fire from this administration, and that's a high bar to clear.

You do realize that a lot of those responses were sent by bots. Yes, they tracked 'em down, and most came from (I recall) only 2 places.

If companies get their way, here is what you get to look forward to. These are cell phone data plans in Mexico. You have to pay for access to certain websites.

2003TIDE said:

If companies get their way, here is what you get to look forward to. These are cell phone data plans in Mexico. You have to pay for access to certain websites.

Click to expand...

Companies already compete right now to bring us the lowest prices per amount of service rendered. Any company that tries that type of pricing in America will fail.

uafanataum said:

Companies already compete right now to bring us the lowest prices per amount of service rendered. Any company that tries that type of pricing in America will fail.

Click to expand...

Ah yes, the magic unregulated free market. Does it's magic only work in the US?

2003TIDE said:

Ah yes, the magic unregulated free market. Does it's magic only work in the US?

Click to expand...

Depends on which market. I think that an unregulated military market would work terribly for the U.s. However I think results prove that low regulation in some markets is a good thing.

uafanataum said:

Companies already compete right now to bring us the lowest prices per amount of service rendered. Any company that tries that type of pricing in America will fail.

Click to expand...

But it's already happening. ISPs are already instituting global data caps and using the lure of "Netflix/Spotify/Pandora is exempt from our data limit!" as a selling point. The problem is that short-sighted people might actually think this kind of data discrimination is a good thing, until Comcast ultimately introduces a tiered internet plan that restricts website access, similar to their tiered Cable TV plans. If ISPs actually thought they were acting in the public interest, they wouldn't have tried to have the GOP in Congress use wording that forbade the FCC from ever rolling back to the Title II classification passed in 2015.