FCC Has Voted to Repeal Net Neutrality Rules

[turbineseaplane]

@TimUSCA

Not sure if you're a Trump voter or not..
I just wish Trump voters would realize and acknowledge (and be mad!!) that he's doing absolutely nothing he said he was going to do - The opposite in fact..

Honestly, nobody should be happy with Trump based upon what he said and what has transpired

 

[alex2792]

Here's the worst part about violations of NN: It's probably going to get cheaper for those who use the mainstream sites, like how T-Mobile lets you stream YouTube for free, but it's going to add roadblocks for new companies. So most of the people who sent those angry letters to the FCC, most of whom probably don't even know what NN is, are going to be happy in the short term if things start going the way of Mexico.

IDK exactly what Obama's bill did and won't pretend that I do. Maybe it'll be alright.

I guess fans of Alex Jones and Huffington Post will need to upgrade to the "nutcase tier" for an extra $10 a month.

 

[turbineseaplane]

Sure and someone will come along and offer an ISP that doesn't have those restrictions and gives superior service. Like many of the municipal ones. Or EPB in TN. Or many of the smaller WiSPs.

The Municipal ISP's battle is getting lost fast...

 

[fairuz]

Actually, before Net Neutrality was enacted, the groundwork for the image you replied to had started.


2005 – North Carolina ISP Madison River Communications blocked VoIP service Vonage.

2005 – Comcast blocked or severely delayed traffic using the BitTorrent file-sharing protocol. (The company even had the guts to deny this for months until evidence was presented by the Associated Press.)

2007 – AT&T censored Pearl Jam because lead singer criticized President Bush.

2007 to 2009 – AT&T forced Apple to block Skype because it didn’t like the competition. At the time, the carrier had exclusive rights to sell the iPhone and even then the net neutrality advocates were pushing the government to protect online consumers, over 5 years before these rules were actually passed.

2009 – Google Voice app faced similar issues from ISPs, including AT&T on iPhone.

2010 – Windstream Communications, a DSL provider, started hijacking search results made using Google toolbar. It consistently redirected users to Windstream’s own search engine and results.

2011 – MetroPCS, one of the top-five wireless carriers at the time, announced plans to block streaming services over its 4G network from everyone except YouTube.

2011 to 2013 – AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon blocked Google Wallet in favor of Isis, a mobile payment system in which all three had shares. Verizon even asked Google to not include its payment app in its Nexus devices.

2012 – AT&T blocked FaceTime; again because the company didn’t like the competition.

2012 – Verizon started blocking people from using tethering apps on their phones that enabled consumers to avoid the company’s $20 tethering fee.

2014 – AT&T announced a new “sponsored data” scheme, offering content creators a way to buy their way around the data caps that AT&T imposes on its subscribers.

2014 – Netflix started paying Verizon and Comcast to “improve streaming service for consumers.”

2014 – T-Mobile was accused of using data caps to manipulate online competition.

In many of these cases, the FCC cracked down and stopped the violations of NN, even without the bill. I'm not sure if the repealing of the bill is going to be a problem. It is still scary because we have a new FCC chairman who's probably in Verizon's pocket.

 

[827538]

Totally, 100% agree with you and I am an American.

As a Brit with an American fiance we are seriously thinking long and hard about where to raise a family.
America isn't a democracy any longer, despite my many criticisms and even loathing at times of the UK our parliamentary democracy works a hell of a lot better than your democracy. Our politicians might be incompetent but they do still answer to us, I can even call and chat to my MP, he only won by something like 20 votes during the last election.

I do not want to raise my children in anything less than a fair democracy.

 

[jerwin]

You guys voted for this, so what did you expect would happen?

 

[belvdr]

All of these so called problems are solved easily. Make the providers pay for all the fees and access charges. They pass it on to the consumer anyway regardless. This is a non-issue. If you don't like the add-on price increases, cancel your subscription; enough people cancel these greedy corporations will get the drift.

Money changes everything. Tax enough of these greedy companies they will all protest and something gets fixed. Consumers complaining does absolutely NOTHING.

Or leave net neutrality in effect and let all data get passed on without modification. You can still vote with your wallet.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Do you think dial-up is a reasonable alternative to broadband in 2017? That's like saying you can leave your water utility and get a hand pump in your yard.

Lots of places/new developments go septic/well water because they don't want to pay a $85,000 PUC sewer hookup charge. Not seeing your point exactly...

Not sure when 56Kbps was faster than 25Mbps...but if that is how you do math....

 

[JamieLannister]

Do you know that Netflix started paying ISPs for faster access before 2015, right? This stopped in 2015 and now, we will get to pay. And this is a huge deal. Want to use Netflix and not Directv now on ATT, guess what there can now be fee for that before today it was not allowed and you can say they were not doing it before 2015, but they were, they were slowing services like Netflix down in favor of their own.

Last I checked Netflix wasn't mandatory. You don't like the increase in Netflix subscription price due to Comcast charging Netflix more money for access, cancel your subscription. Netflix lobbyists and political douche bags will do whatever it takes to fight for Netflix's bottom $dollar line. They do not fight for you the subscriber, lol. Cancel your subscriptions, things will change.

 

[jarman92]

Comments like this do nothing but divide the country even more.

1. You're allowed to vote for a candidate and not agree with 100% of their policies. There are hundreds of issues a president tends to over their tenure, so stop acting like all Trump voters cast their vote with a "haha the internet will die now!" mentality.

2. The reaction to the net neutrality stuff is so unbelievably overblown, it's insane. The internet will continue on, and we'll forget that this even happened 6 months from now when literally nothing changes.

3. Nothing is as black and white as you and many other people are making it out to be. For every downside that comes with repealing net neutrality, there are upsides (at least from the republicans' point of view). It's not like they're going into this whole ordeal licking their chops at the thought of the internet collapsing.

FWIW, I am in support of net neutrality. I'm not supporting the ruling today by any means - I'm only judging the ridiculous overreaction to it all and the asinine attacks from the anti-Trumpers as though all Trump voters must agree 100% with everything Trump does. Again, nothing is that black and white.

Yeah, the country is being divided by comments on MacRumors forums, not by the orange idiot in the White House supporting bigoted child molesters, absolving actual Nazi's of wrongdoing, provoking credible nuclear armageddon via tweet, and insinuating that a sitting Senator is a whore. Totally makes sense.

 

[turbineseaplane]

It is still scary because we have a new FCC chairman who's probably in Verizon's pocket.

"Probably"?

 

[ssgbryan]

Will this administration do anything that isn't dumber than a box of rocks?

No. We are talking about republicans......

 

[CooKieMoNs7eR]

VPN. end of story

 

[i hate phones]

Literally every market in the (continental) United States has more than 1 ISP.

I have a choice of comcast or comcast... verizon will not dig up the roads in my condo complex to install their network ... I'm in the Philly burbs not in the middle of nowhere. So i'd say you're wrong.

 

[bushman4]

poor judgement on the part of the FCC

This is what happens when senators and appointees vote along party lines
Next vote don’t forget who screwed us and vote against that pArty

 

[chrismac2]

Yes, finally all the fear mongering from the left can stop. The world will continue to spin and innovation will not be hindered by Obama era regulation.

You are certainly free to opine that things are better with the roll-back of net-neutrality rules, but I don't think public servants blatantly ignoring the will the people who are majority in support of net-neutrality, and not delaying vote while all the fake public comments debacle is investigated, I don't see how as a citizen in a democracy you can celebrate this.

 

[827538]

In many of these cases, the FCC cracked down and stopped the violations of NN, even without the bill. I'm not sure if the repealing of the bill is going to be a problem. It is still scary because we have a new FCC chairman who's probably in Verizon's pocket.

Probably? He was a Verizon lawyer, he is 100% owned and paid for by Verizon.

 

[TimUSCA]

@TimUSCA

Not sure if you're a Trump voter or not..
I just wish Trump voters would realize and acknowledge (and be mad!!) that he's doing absolutely nothing he said he was going to do - The opposite in fact..

Honestly, nobody should be happy with Trump based upon what he said and what has transpired

I'm what you would call a very reluctant Trump voter. I don't care for him, but I despised his opponent.

He's actually done a LOT of what he promised. I have no idea where this idea comes from. Most of what he promised has either been done or is in progress. Even liberal sources agree with that.

He's only been president for a year. I don't know how quickly you think things change in washington, but it isn't fast at all.

http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/trumpometer/

 

[jasonklee]

Unbelievable. Now I have to go back to paying to access per website and tiers. I don’t want to pay $5 for unlimited access to YouTube and another $5 for Facebook. Remember when you had to do that back in 1996?

 

[Starflyer]

Apparently here on MacRumors people don't even remember when AT&T blocked FaceTime and forced users to pay for a higher plan because they didn't like the streaming on their network.

Remember how much that sucked?

Well, IIIIITTTT'S BAAAAAAAACCCKK!

I'm glad they stopped doing that once NN was passed in 2015.

 

[turbineseaplane]

VPN. end of story

You sure they'll all keep allowing VPN usage?

Might be on a higher "VPN/Business" tier...

 

[JamieLannister]

Or leave net neutrality in effect and let all data get passed on without modification. You can still vote with your wallet.

no- things happen behind the scenes all the time without consumer knowledge of what happens. These are private companies that do not require transparency to how they manage/operate their own private businesses. Look at your internet rates every month - keeps going up with fees, charges, what not. Prices keep going up while they keep tacking on tv bundles, etc.

NN means dick. They continue to rape customers. The only thing different is other private companies now have to pay more fees to Comcast and the like. Comcast is the major problems since they are the only ISP that connects you to the rest of the world. There should be strict regulations against Comcast.

 

[brendu]

Money changes everything. Tax enough of these greedy companies they will all protest and something gets fixed. Consumers complaining does absolutely NOTHING.

This is the problem. The FCC exists specifically TO DO SOMETHING about consumers complaints against telecommunications companies.

 

[fairuz]

@TimUSCA

Not sure if you're a Trump voter or not..
I just wish Trump voters would realize and acknowledge (and be mad!!) that he's doing absolutely nothing he said he was going to do - The opposite in fact..

Honestly, nobody should be happy with Trump based upon what he said and what has transpired

Not a Trump voter, but I'm happy that he destroyed that Syrian air base and pulled us out of a few crappy international organizations. Obama was alright except that he was a total loser when dealing with Syria and Russia. That and he massively raised taxes ON THE SELF-EMPLOYED to fund ACA, probably because the self-employed don't have a lobby. At least Trump has the courage to go against the grain, and I can admire that even though there are plenty of things I hate about him.

 

[jarman92]

Lots of places/new developments go septic/well water because they don't want to pay a $85,000 PUC sewer hookup charge. Not seeing your point exactly...

Not sure when 56Kbps was faster than 25Mbps...but if that is how you do math....

A septic and well are perfectly reasonable alternatives; a hand pump and bucket for sewage are not, which is the point I was making and you ignored. So I guess I'll try again...is it reasonable to leave my electric company and rely on candlelight in 2017?