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If net neutrality dies, will innovation and businesses leave the U.S.?

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: If net neutrality dies, will innovation and businesses leave the U.S.?

#11

Post by stvnchn »

I view what's happening with net neutrality as what happened to cable television. When I was growing up, I only had access to local shows and then the number of channels grew steadily. Then fast forward to today and you have all theses different packages that you have to pay for in order to access them. It's just another way for companies to continue making money off us.

I think they see how torrents and online streaming sites threaten their revenue and that the Internet can do to them what it's done to advertising (esp. for media).

I'm curious to see what forms of innovation and technology will come out this to try and bypass this. Maybe nothing. Who knows though.

Re: If net neutrality dies, will innovation and businesses leave the U.S.?

#12

Post by neo4sure »

I think the cable guys just awakened the sleeping giant. By making sure they can tighten the screws on Silicon Valley they have spawned out a multitude of startups that will topple them one day. The cable companies make money by making something scarce. They will milk every penny of their investment and give it back to the investors without much reinvesting it back to create cheaper broadband for the masses. Silicon Valley’s whole business model is based on cheap access to the internet that's why google Facebook etc is investing so much to connect the third world. I believe they were hedging against net neutrality dying someday. I can't imagine after winning the first battle they took a timeout. The investments in the 3rd world internet may ultimately lead to newer cheaper ways to connect the world. Cabel companies clocks started to run out the day they attacked net neutrality. Let's see how they survive in about 10 years’ time.

Re: If net neutrality dies, will innovation and businesses leave the U.S.?

#13

Post by notgoodenuff88 »

GFischer wrote: post #5

It won't. First of all, I think most are overestimating the effect - as mentioned, many other countries don't have similar legislation. It might make broadband more expensive, and it might make some Netflix-style bandwidth-heavy startups more difficult to start. But, the U.S. has almost a monopoly on Venture Capital, a huge concentration of skilled labor in Silicon Valley, a huge internal market, relatively more leni…

"First of all, I think most are overestimating the effect - as mentioned, many other countries don't have similar legislation."

Because a USA apple is the same as an EU orange?

That is, do other rules they have make it such that they don't need this rule specifically?

"But, the U.S. has almost a monopoly on Venture Capital, a huge concentration of skilled labor in Silicon Valley, a huge internal market, relatively more lenient regulation and many other advantages."

This relies on your first assertion being true: that little will change.

If bandwidth costs rise dramatically, are folks going to be keen to invest in startups with shortened run-ways?

It's not one startup that's doing well, it's SV culture. It's doing far more than the other sectors of the economy, thus the shake down of the entire network by legacy players (GOP being more heavily funded by elder-statesmen if you will, of Comcast, Koch bros...)

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