Keep the Internet Open

I think it holds in the scenario you're talking about. If ISP's had different rates at different times and made those times public, you could choose to stop yourself from using certain things at those times, but it's your choice (or whoever you decide to let make that choice for you, but that doesn't have to be the ISP).

> Tech workers don't have a union

Yes we do, just not on US.

https://www.igmetall.de/engineering-8357.htm

Net Neutrality absolutists need to tone down their rhetoric. When NN activists say zero rating is unfair, they are speaking from an ivory tower. It is better for a poor Iraqi to get free Wikipedia even though that hurts other upstart wikis, than for poor Iraqis to have no Wikipedia at all. Once you accept this premise, you must then accept that exceptions to NN exist. Once you accept that, you must then take every single exception to NN and weigh it on a case-by-case basis about whether it's "fair" or not.

Barring some government oversight panel that bans or allows anti-NN practices on a case by case basis, I think it's better for the market to decide. ISP's shouldn't be able to extort businesses to be allowed in at all, but offering premium speeds (as Netflix has paid for years), free data, etc. are within the realms of anti-NN practices that I feel are acceptable.

The net neutrality issue is not black and white.

I do agree net neutrality is a good thing, only major thing I disagree with gutting net neutrality as the internet is the future network for everything. But overall I support Ajit Pai because he wants to cut down on regulations it seems from reading some transcripts.

For example there's people who want to regulate Netflix, Amazon Instant video, Playstation Vue, YouTube TV as if they are a cable system, with all the extra regulations the major cable and satellite companies have to follow, and were created way before IP based networks became popular. I feel like the free market should always win, a kid in their basement should be allowed to create competitors.

I personally feel like everything should move to IP Based networks. You don't have to worry about a limited number of stations, as IP based is pretty much unlimited.

So even if people disagree with him on net neutrality, I do believe he's doing good work. Maybe if regulations are cut and made modern we'd have more options in the market. Maybe Google Fiber could be nationwide at some point if regulations were out of the way. Google already owns a bunch of dark fiber. I'd really love if the internet was just one dumb pipe.

For example I have satellite TV and cable internet. When you watch on demand content they use your internet connection to download/stream the shows instead of being beamed down by the satellite. My ISP does not have a cap, but maybe if I lived in another part of the US served by one that does it would be metered as internet traffic, compared to using cable's TV service and watching on-demand which is locally within their own network(and not counted in the internet meter).

I'd love in the future if we had internet only providers but It seems like one is so hard to get going I doubt we'll have that. I know some communities have done their own Fiber, but even were sued to stop it by the major players. Google "communities fiber lawsuit" for example. I don't know why but it seems like depending on your area there's only one cable company, one phone company, and if you are lucky one fiber company. So I really wish it was easier to do ISP startups and compete. I'm not even sure if it's possible to share the lines. The regulations, and politics around it are probably why we aren't really having new entries in the market.

TESTIMONY OF COMMISSIONER AJIT PAI, FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION- https://apps.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DOC-336418A1.p...

Commissioner Pai Remarks Before the Churchill Club https://www.fcc.gov/document/commissioner-pai-remarks-church...