FCC Votes in Favor of Net Neutrality Rules, Classifies Broadband Service as a Utility

[swordfish5736]

Net Neutrality is used as a power grab. This does not help us as consumers. It hurts us. Just another way for the current administration to tell you what to do and what's in your best interest. This is just step one.

So can you tell us how not having net neutrality would help consumers?

and can you also tell us how having net neutrality hurts us as consumers?

here's a fact sheet from the FCC about the net neutrality rules:

http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2015/db0204/DOC-331869A1.pdf

 

[winston1236]

yeah. The only the people want the government out of is the uterus... Other than that let the government take care of things, the average citizen isn't smart enough to handle themselves.

Really let the private businesses handle this and let competition work for the American citizen and consumer.

What competition? How is it I live in major city and have one option for broadband? The current system only breeds monopoly.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Thats a shame. Lets hope the courts again take the sane position restrain this federal overreach.

 

[sodapop1]

One example from Forbes:

Newsflash, Forbes magazine is a hack only looking out for the bottom line of corporations and could careless about customers.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

What competition? How is it I live in major city and have one option for broadband? The current system only breeds monopoly.

http://www.hughesnet.com

I have no doubt that DSL is also available.

 

[roland.g]

What competition? How is it I live in major city and have one option for broadband? The current system only breeds monopoly.

Seriously I live in a major city. #23 in the country so not that major.

We have Comcast Cable
We have CenturyLink (formerly Qwest) DSL and Fiber
We also have DirecTV broadband via Satellite

The Fiber is ridiculously fast.

 

[roland.g]

Newsflash, Forbes magazine is a hack only looking out for the bottom line of corporations and could careless about customers.

Newsflash, Barack Obama is the worst President in U.S. history, has singlehandedly done more damage than good, and the country may take anywhere from 10-25 years to recover from his 8 years of corruption, if it can at all. At a point in history when so many things in this world are at crucial turning points, we have possibly gone into the dark ages of American Communism.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Ok then tell us how it's bad that corporations can no longer charge companies for data usage.

We pay them for internet service and then they turn around and charged companies bandwidth ransom money for a service we already paid for.

Again, someone who doesn't understand the issue. The issue between Netflix (Level3) and Verizon was between their tier-1 networks and their peering agreements. Level3 violated their peering agreement with Verizon and incurred additional cost.

What you fail to realize is that at the tier-1 level, that data may have been destine for a tier-3 customer on a different network like Comcast. This is why peering agreements exist and should exist.

No, you did't already pay for it.

This is nothing more than an attempt by mega-corporations like Netflix and Google to cost shift their operating expenditures onto tier-3 network providers at the expense of the end user.

 

[sodapop1]

http://www.hughesnet.com

I have no doubt that DSL is also available.

DSL is not really high speed.

Seriously I live in a major city. #23 in the country so not that major.

We have Comcast Cable
We have CenturyLink (formerly Qwest) DSL and Fiber
We also have DirecTV broadband via Satellite

The Fiber is ridiculously fast.

Must be nice. Where I live the only high speed ISP is Comcast.

 

[avanpelt]

Give me the ability to have multiple cable providers vying for my business and offering 100 Mbps up and down for $50-$75/month and I will be satisfied. Unfortunately, it doesn't sound like this move by the FCC does anything to increase meaningful competition.

And AT&T Uverse is anything but meaningful competition for the cable companies. 6 Mbps down is pathetic in 2015 and that's the fastest "high speed" service AT&T offers at my home, which is 40 minutes from downtown Atlanta. Oh, but it's only $19.95/month for the first 12 months (and then it goes up to $52.00/month). I don't know how they can offer 6 Mbps down for $52.00/month with a straight face.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

DSL is not really high speed.

So you are changing your narrow definition as you want to have your cake and eat it too. Got it.

Yes, alternatives in your market do exist, you just want to put your hands over your ears and go 'la la la la la'

 

[Codyak]

It says a lot that AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast all hate this. It still blows my mind that anyone thinks Comcast plus TWC is a good idea. If anyone cares, here's how I've been treated by Comcast.

When I was in college we had Comcast and dial-up as the only options for our apartments. Every night like clockwork the internet would slow to a crawl, obviously because of over saturation. It was even slower(latency and bandwidth wise) than the AT&T 2G tethering I had. After talking to Comcast they would only be available to come out and test the network from 9-5, which obviously would have the repair guy see there was no issue. After fighting with them constantly they finally told me they had put in some kind of new tech and that they were waiting for the local guys to get it running. Then after talking to the guys that would come out, they'd say they were waiting for corporate...

Luckily I moved out not long after but it's shown me one, Comcast literally doesn't give a **** about you, all they care about is over-promising, overcharging, and hiding behind their monopoly.

I think I even still have the chat logs saved.

 

[Huntn]

I like the idea of regulations of Internet and cable rates. I've witnessed the result of limited competition on rates and believe average consumers are forced by lack of competition to pay rates that are too high, mostly through packaging (if they want to enjoy those services). I wish I lived in a city where the city financed a high speed optics network. I think tax dollars would be well spent in this area. In Houston, Texas, consumers have the choice of a wide variety of household electrical suppliers on a common grid. IMO, this is where cable, Internet services needs to head.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

Give me the ability to have multiple cable providers vying for my business and offering 100 Mbps up and down for $50-$75/month and I will be satisfied.

Give me a Bugatti Veyron for $10,000 and I will be satisfied.

See, I too can make completely ridiculous requests.

 

[zin]

Thats a shame. Lets hope the courts again take the sane position restrain this federal overreach.

Not going to happen. The Court that ruled the FCC lacked authority under the previous classification already acknowledged in their ruling that the FCC does have the power to reclassify under Title II and thus enforce net neutrality rules.

How is it an example of federal overreach? The Internet is global. It significantly affects interstate commerce. The Federal Government is the only entity in the U.S. that can effectively protect it.

Newsflash, Barack Obama is the worst President in U.S. history, has singlehandedly done more damage than good, and the country may take anywhere from 10-25 years to recover from his 8 years of corruption, if it can at all. At a point in history when so many things in this world are at crucial turning points, we have possibly gone into the dark ages of American Communism.

It didn't take long to mention the 'C' word. You have no idea what you're talking about.

 

[roland.g]

DSL is not really high speed.

Must be nice. Where I live the only high speed ISP is Comcast.

That's what I have. I thought about switching to CenturyLink Fiber but don't have a home phone line installed, which somehow balloons my install from $60 to $200. All that to get roughly the same speed as my Comcast service for $5-10 less per month. At that rate it would take 20-40 months to recoup the install cost.

 

[zin]

Give me a Bugatti Veyron for $10,000 and I will be satisfied.

See, I too can make completely ridiculous requests.

It's not a ridiculous request. If the competition was there then it would've been offered a long time ago.

 

[roland.g]

Not going to happen. The Court that ruled the FCC lacked authority under the previous classification already acknowledged in their ruling that the FCC does have the power to reclassify under Title II and thus enforce net neutrality rules.

How is it an example of federal overreach? The Internet is global. It significantly affects interstate commerce. The Federal Government is the only entity in the U.S. that can effectively protect it.



It didn't take long to mention the 'C' word. You have no idea what you're talking about.

Do a deep study of the man and find out who he really is before you make comments like that.

 

[sbailey4]

You can pretty much bet that if it's bad for Big Telecom then it's good for us.

Now the lawsuits begin.

You could also say if Obama supports it then its probably bad for us. Guess we will have to wait and see.

 

[sodapop1]

So you are changing your narrow definition as you want to have your cake and eat it too. Got it.

Yes, alternatives in your market do exist, you just want to put your hands over your ears and go 'la la la la la'

Trust me, I would love to ditch Comcast and the only alternative in my area is DSL which I have used in the past but it is too slow.

 

[Heltik]

It's not a ridiculous request. If the competition was there then it would've been offered a long time ago.

TBH competition in the utility space is not as beneficial to the consumer as its proponents would have you believe.

 

[ThisIsNotMe]

It didn't take long to mention the 'C' word. You have no idea what you're talking about.

Seems to me appropriating private property under the guise of 'the public good' without just compensation very much fits in that definition.

----------

It's not a ridiculous request. If the competition was there then it would've been offered a long time ago.

There is competition in the automobile industry. Why doesn't a Bugatti Veyron cost $10,000?

 

[mudslag]

Newsflash, Barack Obama is the worst President in U.S. history, has singlehandedly done more damage than good, and the country may take anywhere from 10-25 years to recover from his 8 years of corruption, if it can at all. At a point in history when so many things in this world are at crucial turning points, we have possibly gone into the dark ages of American Communism.

LOL thanks, I needed a good laugh.

 

[zin]

Do a deep study of the man and find out who he really is before you make comments like that.

I have already done my research and I maintain that you just don't know what you're talking about.

Barack Obama is absolutely no where near being a communist. Not a socialist. Obama is a full on capitalist. He is right-wing. He isn't even anywhere near the centre.

 

[zaphon]

Sadly this was a Lose Lose scenario from the beginning.

Allowing Comcast/Verizon/AT&T to control the situation was terrible for us the consumer (yeah here's your 100Mbit internet connection, however because Netflix doesn't want to pay us (on top of what they already pay their ISP for internet service), you can only have 0.1Mbit)

However allowing the Government to control it won't make things much better. The government doesn't exactly have the greatest track record in this area, and I'm not convinced they have our best interests at heart, like they claim. Only time will tell.