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The Internet is Free Again
WSJ via (Google) ^ | 12/14/2017 | Editorial Board

Posted on 12/14/2017 8:07:38 PM PST by FreedomNotSafety

By effectively deeming the internet a utility, former chairman Tom Wheeler turned the FCC into a political gatekeeper. The rules prohibited broadband providers from blocking, throttling and favoring content, which Mr. Wheeler ostensibly intended to help large content providers like Google and Netflix gain leverage against cable companies.

(Excerpt) Read more at google.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy
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Google the title and click on the Amp link. This should get you past the pay wall (works for a few articles at a time).

They state Wheeler was exercising political control of the internet to favor content providers such as Google (that paragon of uncensored speech).

1 posted on 12/14/2017 8:07:38 PM PST by FreedomNotSafety
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To: FreedomNotSafety

Good. Keep the government intrusion to a minimum.


2 posted on 12/14/2017 8:12:36 PM PST by Parley Baer
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To: FreedomNotSafety
Oh you mean the only utility in the country that was utterly exempt from state regulations?

The only utility which in order to promote ‘freedom of the internet’ barred other utilities from charging for pole space or for damage caused by monstrously heavy cable lines ripping down live power poles?

You mean that FCC created utility? Yes, WSJ, the hint of freedom we have at the moment is very nice.

And since Netflix has so much of the bandwidth already reserved via longstanding agreements, Disney might want to get on the phone with them to work something out before Hulu is a DOA property. We know Google won't be calling them.

3 posted on 12/14/2017 8:13:11 PM PST by kingu (Everything starts with slashing the size and scope of the federal government.)
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To: Parley Baer

You have it wrong, friend.

Get your wallet ready for metred billing.


4 posted on 12/14/2017 8:14:40 PM PST by Conservatron
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To: Conservatron
Get your wallet ready for metred billing.

Worse than that, get ready to have to buy 'bundles' of services from your ISP.

Most of them are cable companies and they know how to leverage that monopoly.

Want access to FR? Well, here at Cox we have our own great conservative forum included in our base package.

If you want our premium 'open forum' bundle it's only $12.99 more per month.

5 posted on 12/14/2017 8:21:45 PM PST by semimojo
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To: Parley Baer

yes - anyone who argues “we need to regulate this business“ needs to google : regulatory capture


6 posted on 12/14/2017 8:23:15 PM PST by vooch (America First Drain the Swamp as)
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To: FreedomNotSafety

Google is both, a content provider, and an ISP.

Google is still a favorite of the liberals, so, Google can’t lose either way.


7 posted on 12/14/2017 8:36:14 PM PST by adorno
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Technology and markets change faster than the speed of regulation, which Ajit Pai’s FCC has recognized by taking a neutral position and restoring the promise of internet freedom.


8 posted on 12/14/2017 8:45:56 PM PST by smokingfrog ( sleep with one eye open (<o> ---)
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To: FreedomNotSafety

Al Franken is a big proponent of Net Neutrality. Why am I not surprised he wants to get his grubby hands all over the Internet?

9 posted on 12/14/2017 8:46:23 PM PST by Nateman (The louder the left screams , the better it is for America!)
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To: semimojo

Get your wallet ready for metred billing.

Worse than that, get ready to have to buy ‘bundles’ of services from your ISP.

Most of them are cable companies and they know how to leverage that monopoly.

Want access to FR? Well, here at Cox we have our own great conservative forum included in our base package.

If you want our premium ‘open forum’ bundle it’s only $12.99 more per month.


I am hearing lots of cheering—This is what I am NOT hearing and I suspect we consumers will end up paying thru the nose...Also wonder if smaller towns and rural areas will end up with huge rate increases.

Not at all sure that the consumer will end up the winner in the long run.


10 posted on 12/14/2017 8:48:59 PM PST by Freedom56v2 (#KATE'SWALL Build it Now)
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To: FreedomNotSafety

I see all the big censorship companies are against this ruling.


11 posted on 12/14/2017 8:52:46 PM PST by Karl Spooner
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To: FreedomNotSafety

And so we are going back to the horrible, intolerable unregulated Internet of ... 2015?

Oh the horror...


12 posted on 12/14/2017 9:11:05 PM PST by CaptainMorgantown
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To: CaptainMorgantown

Phone companies are utilities and I don’t think they have the right to censor your phone calls merely because of your political views unlike the good old net-neutrality boys are doing to conservatives on their communication platforms. Could that be what they are upset about?


13 posted on 12/14/2017 9:26:34 PM PST by Karl Spooner
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To: semimojo

Try one of our great options!

$49.99 with 250GB monthly limit.
$59.99 with 500GB monthly limit
$69.99 with 750GB monthly limit.

Or save with our $89.99 unlimited monthly plan! No more worrying about monthly caps or overage fees!


14 posted on 12/14/2017 9:34:08 PM PST by Conservatron
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To: FreedomNotSafety

Google+Facebook+YouTube+Leftist Hollywood+the Democrat wanted “Net Neutrality”, so over time the Government ( Them ) could control the Internet. And that is why the are screaming like someone raped their Mother.


15 posted on 12/14/2017 9:34:47 PM PST by heights
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To: Conservatron

They were doing that anyway even under NN. NN didn’t do *anything* to prevent metered access.


16 posted on 12/14/2017 9:39:37 PM PST by Spktyr (Overwhelmingly superior firepower and the willingness to use it is the only proven peace solution.)
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To: semimojo; Conservatron
No you pro guys are wrong its a pain in the ass to do that and a needless waste of time and customer service people. The utility argument is bogus anyhow. In the summer I pay more for my water and electricity. The instant you start filtering at an application level you make the barrier of entry for competition entering the market much lower. Nice try - back to the way - oh the way it is now and has been since the beginning. The sky is falling the sky is falling - thank god a couple of adults are in charge

Route around the problem is called TCP/IP learn how it works

17 posted on 12/14/2017 9:39:50 PM PST by datricker (Cut Taxes Repeal ACA Deport DACA - Americans First, Build the Wall, Lock her up MAGA!)
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To: FreedomNotSafety

[[The rules prohibited broadband providers from blocking, throttling and favoring content,]]

Must be why our internet went from 5 mb p/s to 10 then to 15- and finally to 60 p/s- They musta known this was coming?


18 posted on 12/14/2017 10:00:59 PM PST by Bob434
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To: FreedomNotSafety

In case anybody longs for the days of well-regulated utilities which saved us from the depredations of the free marketplace, consider how well served we were by allowing a utility to monopolize telephone service.

The FCC was created by the Communications Act of 1933, in part to regulate the monopoly phone utility. AT&T was broken up in 1984. During that 50 year period, which included some of the most remarkable technology innovations in human history, the customer experience for US phone customers changed remarkably little.

* Remember party lines, where 5 or 10 houses shared one phone line? They survived into 1970s and 80s in many places, thanks to regulated phone service.

* Remember waiting until 11pm to call grandma, because long distance rates went down at night? Once those wonderful utilities were deregulated in the 1980s, long distance rates dropped by a factor of 10 almost overnight.

* Remember rotary phones? Remember having to pay a monthly rental charge to the phone company? Remember being prohibited from connecting a phone or an answering machine to the line in your own home? Cheap cordless phones, faxes, answering machines and modems, in a vast assortment of varieties and colors, only became available after the utility-idea was killed.

* Do you like your wireless phone? Regulated phone companies had a great version. If you were lucky enough to live in New York and you were wealthy enough and waited long enough, you might be one of the few hundred customers who were permitted to have a wireless telephone in 1970s.

* In one of my favorite examples of the benefits of well-regulated utilities, technical research papers on the CDMA technology that has enabled cheap wireless service were not even permitted to be published in any of the leading communications technical journals in the late 1970s and early 1980s. CDMA was not AT&T’s favored technology and Bell Labs employees controlled the editorial process.

If you want to freeze the Internet in place and make certain that our grandchildren in 2067 will enjoy the exact same browsing experience that we have today in 2017, then by all means let’s go ahead and regulate the Internet as a utility.


19 posted on 12/14/2017 10:30:57 PM PST by CaptainMorgantown
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All on or all off is not the right answer.

If customers have only one or two ISP choices THAT CAN DELIVERED TO THEIR BUILDING THROUGH PHYSICAL MEDIUM then there needs to be ant-monopoly, anti-gouging regulation.

If 3 or more are available to the customers building then free and open market competition will thrive if those companies are not in secret cahoots with each other (which is already illegal).

Also ISP start-up rules and regulations need to be made to be much quicker, simpler, cheaper.


20 posted on 12/15/2017 4:09:38 AM PST by USCG SimTech
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