Posted on 12/14/2017 10:36:00 AM PST by ColdOne
The Federal Communications Commission voted Thursday to repeal net neutrality rules, over the objection of Democrats in Congress, Internet activists and online companies.
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai, Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, and Commissioner Brendan Carr, all Republicans, supported the proposed rollback of the Obama-era rules. Democratic Commissioners Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel opposed the change.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonexaminer.com ...
“Why should they be ticked off?”
Because the truth is nowhere to be found in this. Just like they’re managed to get more than half the country to oppose the tax plan despite most people getting a nice tax cut.
“Based on the comments, I think people are going to have to learn this the hard way.”
The vehicle to deliver hard lessons isn’t generally a loved entity. No love, no votes.
Reality is a harsh Mistress.
The problem as I see it is that most of the big carriers are now also content providers - Comcast or ATT (which owns Direct TV) for instance.
Where I live the only high speed internet provider is Comcast. When I moved I decided I wanted to try the Direct TV Now streaming service as my nephew has it and liked it, recommended it. I also stream via Roku, Amazon Prime and Netflix.
But with Comcast as the carrier, I was forced to get their basic cable TV package, granted it is only about 10 channels but I had no choice – want Comcast internet? - you have to at least get their basic cable offering.
But I’ve also noticed that while my internet connection and speed is fine, after I’ve been streaming the Direct TV Now or Amazon or Netflix, after a time, suddenly my speed goes down and the connection becomes unstable. I can’t prove it, but wouldn’t be surprised if Comcast isn’t throttling based on what sites I am connecting to.
The same can be said for my ATT cellular service. I had to get their unlimited data plan in order to qualify for the Direct TV Now package. But the thing is, unlimited data really isn’t unlimited unless I am streaming ATT or Direct TV Now content. I can connect my Roku to my phone via the mobile hot spot and it works, but unless I’m only streaming the Direct TV Now, eventually they throttle me.
I have no problem with internet providers charging based on data usage or performance tiers (Comcast already does this) but I do have a problem when the only game in town is allowed to determine what content you can effectively stream or force you to pay extra for accessing content not part of their mega corporate structure.
And it is only getting worse what with all the mega mergers in the communications industry, see today’s story on the Disney-Fox merger.
I guess the Russians don’t want to have to pay to put fake comments on our email websites.
Nonsense.
Outstanding!!!
Go President Trump!!!
That is precisely what it does.
They are throwing content off now.
They are throwing content off now.
Once Comcast is able to charge you an extra $5 per month for “streaming services” and guaranteed delivery, this problem goes away.
Right now they are forced to carry competitive services without any upcharge, cannibalizing their own business.
Because of NN.
“My bet is that it isn’t popular.”
The big content providers have been in a full-out propaganda campaign for at least 10 years, nearly the entire life of Facebook.
All youth is nearly universally opposed.
I think the Commerce Clause did that for them.
I agree that the issue of Congress delegating the power to the Executive is material.
I don't think that's at issue.
The right analogy is the phone company charging you more for talking to your spouse than to your mother.
Right now they are forced to carry competitive services without any upcharge, cannibalizing their own business.
That would be fine if you could guarantee that Comcast would only charge an extra $5 a month for me to stream any content from whatever content provider (excluding of course illegal bit torrent movie streaming but that’s another topic).
The problem is that I don’t see that happening. What will happen is ISP’s like Comcast will have a myriad of ever cost increasing tiers and packages resulting in the Ultra-Ulta-Mega-Super Premium package that will cost $500 a month if you really don’t want Comcast to limit what you can watch.
“All youth is nearly universally opposed.”
Whether you think NN is good, bad or indifferent, consider what you said, “All youth is nearly universally opposed.”
What do you consider youth? I would say 40 and under. That is a voting block that Trump and the GOP has just about thrown away. Those people consider themselves to be damaged in a very important way.
This isn’t going to be good.
“The problem is that I don’t see that happening. What will happen is ISP’s like Comcast will have a myriad of ever cost increasing tiers and packages resulting in the Ultra-Ulta-Mega-Super Premium package that will cost $500 a month if you really don’t want Comcast to limit what you can watch.”
Of course that could occur.
Then another business steps in and drops it to $100.
There IS a market when there is money to be made.
Exactly. And even more precisely the phone company making a deal with your spouse so that kicks back some money to the phone company to make it cheaper for you to talk to her than your mother.
The right analogy is the phone company charging you more for talking to your spouse than to your mother.
Not really. More like charging you more for an international call to London than a local call.
They’ll get over it.
They have insufficient attention span to hold a grudge for more than a couple of weeks.
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