Obama: Regulate broadband Internet like a utility so it 'works for everyone'

c/net ^ | November 10, 2014 | Don Reisinger

[LucianOfSamasota]

President Obama urged the US government to adopt tighter regulations on broadband service in an effort to preserve "a free and open Internet."

In a statement released Monday, Obama called on the Federal Communications Commission to enforce the principle of treating all Internet traffic the same way, known in shorthand as Net neutrality. That means treating broadband services like utilities, the president said, so that Internet service providers would be unable "to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas."

Obama wades into a contentious debate that has raged over how to treat Internet traffic, which has only heated up as the FCC works to prepare an official guideline. Those rules were expected to be made available later this year, though reports now claim they may be delayed until early 2015. The debate has centered on whether broadband should be placed under Title II regulation under the Telecommunications Act, which already tightly controls phone services.

[Ray76]

http://blog.netflix.com/2014/03/internet-tolls-and-case-for-strong-net.html

[hal ogen]

Clown Prince nobola finds that the internet isn't working for him. That is because free people on the internet expose his BS and the BS of his criminal leftist minions. Justice will prevail.

[Parley Baer]

Sounds like a Trojan horse to me.

[Ray76]

>> It’s about making ISPs “dumb pipes” for the internet and allowing people to choose what they use that bandwidth for.

That’s it exactly.

The problem with Comcast et al is that they are an ISP AND a cable TV company. There is no problem with throttling if it is done for network management purposes, there is a problem if it is done for the purpose of favoring their cable TV business.

Comcast needs to divest itself of either its ISP business or its cable TV business.

[Argus]

I smell another race-based shakedown racket in the works.

[catfish1957]

Utter bullshit and lies. None of that is true. What ISP is keeping you from accessing free republic?

I think he was speculating in what can happen in the future. You don't think that Obolo and his minions can manipulate the web for their own purposes? People thought the same about health care 5 years ago.

[SampleMan]

...so that Internet service providers would be unable "to restrict the best access or to pick winners and losers in the online marketplace for services and ideas."

Because that's the government's job.

[faithhopecharity]

government has a long history of taking control of private business and private citizens’ lives...

whenever something goes wrong, govt promises to Ride to the Rescue if only it is given control over us

but here and now,
what’s not working with the internet?

it seems to be up and running, or else you wouldn’t be able to read this little note....

[Captain Peter Blood]

The problem we have is that most of Congress and the President have no idea how the Internet works. There are already packets of info that travel faster than others and it has always been that way to make the whole system work.

Now if they decide that all traffic must go at the same speed then guess what the whole system will slow down.

What Obama and the FCC will do is screw the Internet system up to no end where it will become a burdensome system of lost innovation and creativity.

Also where will costs go on this, up and up. There could be a point where many of us may just cut that cord also and go without. It would be tough but I could adjust with no Internet. It would leave me more time to read and take in life.

[ronnie raygun]

Who is the internet not working for you dolt, you need control becuase a free people should not be thinking for itself and critisizing an idiot like yourself, chains and shackels are your future one hopes

[maddog55]

Obama: Regulate broadband Internet like a utility so it ‘works for socialist’... fixed.

[DaveA37]

When you control the press, you control the people. Same goes for the internet.

[DaveA37]

When you control the press, you control the people. Same goes for the internet.

[plain talk]

Future? No ISP is going to block access to FR. If one of them did you cancel your service and go with a different ISP.

However there is only one Obama. If he screws you over there is nowhere else to go. So supporting Obama regulations makes no sense.

[Captain Peter Blood]

One of the reasons is Streaming Video. Netflix during primetime alone eats up 33% of the bandwidth and pays nothing extra, just piggybacks on the ISP’s.

So you want streaming then you may have to pay for it. The ISP’s can't absorb all those costs and that is what the debate is. So you want fast speed then we all pay $100 a month or more for it.

[Ray76]

Some places have one ISP.

[VanDeKoik]

1st problem is that Facetime is not a website.

2nd issue is that no one needed anything Obama is pushing to deal with any issue like that.

Now the simple question for people here is are you willing to trade less federal control in order to stop a virtually non-existent problem? I’m not. I dont care how many 20 year olds think that is “uncool”.

What young conservative in there right mind would want more federal regulation and all of the evils that will come from it?

[Ray76]

I am sure that Netflix (or Google, or Amazon, or any other large website) is paying for their bandwidth.

[VanDeKoik]

Yup. The solution is more competition. Removing government barriers that keep new ISPs from emerging.

And what about the big tech companies?

Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Samsung, Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, Nintendo and others are worth over half a trillion dollars combined! They can all easily pitch in together and create a mega ISP that could bring competition anywhere there isnt enough.

They all benefit from the net, maybe they should help ensure nothing bad ever happens.

[hal ogen]

I do not support ANY of the Clown Prince’s positions on anything.