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72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

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Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#121

Post by bensonn »

I don't know what "Net Neutrality" is. I have looked and tried to find out. My best guess is that Net Neutrailty is a badly named concept that emcompasses lots of different things to different people. Maybe it means control of The Internet, or equal speeds for all sites? Besides squishy feelings is there a concrete meaning?

From what I can gather the FCC changed some things which might allow groups to do things which may end up worse for end users, at least for a while. Before the FCC "repealed" it, was there a single bill/rule/law called Net Neutrality?

No sarcasm in this question, just pure ignorance- what EXACTLY is Net Neutrailty?

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#123

Post by austincheney »

mobilefriendly wrote: post #109
austincheney wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is a balance of ignorance. I really do believe most people don't know and don't care about net neutrality no matter how beneficial it may be to them in the most immediate sense. At its core the net neutrality debate is a fight between media providers and transmission. It is clear to most tech literate people that net neutrality is a very good thing. Less clear is that media (including privacy) regulation is also a…

Fact is, Democrats get majority of telecom dollars https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=B09

I wonder how that differs with this more recent data: https://www.theverge.com/2017/3/29/15100620/congress-fcc-isp...

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#124

Post by js2 »

WillPostForFood wrote: post #106
jandrese wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They still payed Cogent for the peering, but they had to also pay Comcast and Verizon for the same peering (just on the other side), because both companies were deliberately undersizing their connections to Cogent until Netflix paid up. It's not like Netflix moved their servers into Comcast or Verizon data centers and paid for the bandwidth (although they offered and the offer was rejected). How many other internet c…

because both companies were deliberately undersizing their connections to Cogent I think a clarification would be helpful here. Were they "deliberately undersizing" or were they refusing to to increase capacity to accommodate the surge in additional Netflix traffic without being paid? This is how Cogent described it, “Comcast refused to continue to augment capacity at our interconnection points as it had done for yea…

Cogent isn't sending traffic to Comcast willy nilly. Comcast customers are requesting the traffic. It's part of Comcast's cost of doing business to size their network to meet their own customer demand. Or at least, it should be, because most of Comcast's customers have no other choice of ISP, so normal market pressure doesn't work. So yes, this is (should be) a Comcast problem, not Cogent and not Netflix.

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#125

Post by vmarquet »

stuaxo wrote: post #122

Only 72% ? This seems quite low to me, as something that is quite esoteric to non-techies.

I thought this was quite high, since the net neutrality issue had a lot of coverage in the media, see for example the two John Oliver talks about it:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbOEoRrHyU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92vuuZt7wak

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#126

Post by Clubber »

Animats wrote: post #113
Clubber wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They miniaturize people and put them in the box like on Willy Wonka.. Duh..

No, not "how". Merely that it still works at all. A big fraction of the population assumes you have to buy cable to get TV. Some think that selling TV antennas is illegal. [1] [1] https://www.wsj.com/articles/millennials-unearth-an-amazing-...

I recently cut the cable and installed a digital antenna with a HomeRun for the AppleTV. I wanted to make sure I get football games when the season comes around. I couldn't be happier, the picture is as good as cable. We get around 42 channels, but a few duplicates.

I got Hulu which I'm not overly happy with. Playstation Vue was a lot better.

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#127

Post by SolarNet »

bensonn wrote: post #121

I don't know what "Net Neutrality" is. I have looked and tried to find out. My best guess is that Net Neutrailty is a badly named concept that emcompasses lots of different things to different people. Maybe it means control of The Internet, or equal speeds for all sites? Besides squishy feelings is there a concrete meaning? From what I can gather the FCC changed some things which might allow groups to do things which…

The idea that governs the phone systems the modern internet was born from. That providers of network access must provide access to other networks equally. That the networks are neutral to the content flowing across them. This is about preventing monopolies of the physical lines.

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#128

Post by WillPostForFood »

js2 wrote: post #124
WillPostForFood wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

because both companies were deliberately undersizing their connections to Cogent I think a clarification would be helpful here. Were they "deliberately undersizing" or were they refusing to to increase capacity to accommodate the surge in additional Netflix traffic without being paid? This is how Cogent described it, “Comcast refused to continue to augment capacity at our interconnection points as it had done for yea…

Cogent isn't sending traffic to Comcast willy nilly. Comcast customers are requesting the traffic. It's part of Comcast's cost of doing business to size their network to meet their own customer demand. Or at least, it should be, because most of Comcast's customers have no other choice of ISP, so normal market pressure doesn't work. So yes, this is (should be) a Comcast problem, not Cogent and not Netflix.

this is (should be) a Comcast problem

That's an arbitrary assessment. It is a problem for both sides. Netflix was paying Cogent for bandwidth. Cogent was taking advantage of a peering agreement (peer ~ equal) that was then thrown way out of balance. Netflix switched from paying Cogent to paying Comcast - both sides had obligations to pay for bandwidth from the beginning.

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#129

Post by tchock23 »

xienze wrote: post #76
tchock23 wrote: post #73

My hypothesis is it has to do with the name chosen for it. If it had a more 'consumer-friendly' name it would be more widely known. Something like 'Internet Freedom' or 'Free Internet' would have more appeal...

That's actually probably a worse name. There are a lot of people who think it has to do with regulating online content (in a political viewpoint sense). "Internet Freedom" would only make that worse.

I agree that it's technically a worse name. Net neutrality is technically not a bad name - it just doesn't resonate and the stats on awareness (somewhat) reflect that. My point was more that it needs to better resonate with consumers. I'm not an expert in naming to come up with something actually better, but I am an expert in consumer behavior and know a name that lacks clarity when I see one...

Re: 72% of Consumers Don't Know What Net Neutrality Is

#130

Post by tchock23 »

ATsch wrote: post #77
tchock23 wrote: post #73

My hypothesis is it has to do with the name chosen for it. If it had a more 'consumer-friendly' name it would be more widely known. Something like 'Internet Freedom' or 'Free Internet' would have more appeal...

Well, since the Bill was named "Restoring Internet Freedom" (and in a time where it feels like every third bill is named something with "freedom") I doubt that would have made things more transparent to the average consumer.

Agreed - the word "freedom" in general is overplayed, but for a reason - it works with many Americans (for better or worse)...
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