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Startups Seek Tech Solution to Net Neutrality Repeal

wsj.com

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Re: Startups Seek Tech Solution to Net Neutrality Repeal

#31

Post by JD557 »

brndnmtthws wrote: post #3

VPNs for everyone?

I keep seeing people recommending VPNs to fight Net Neutrality, but I don't think that will help.

Let's say that they want to slow down sites like TPB and Vodo while making Netflix faster.

Instead of "making everything normal and making TPB slow", which would be a bad for marketing and would be avoided by VPNs, they'll make "everything normal and Netflix fast", which sounds much better in marketing and you can't avoid with a VPN (if you use a VPN, everything will be the same, except for Netflix which will be slower).

This is the same thing that is happening with zero-rating in the EU: If you use a VPN, the only thing that happens is that you'll have limited traffic for all services.

Re: Startups Seek Tech Solution to Net Neutrality Repeal

#32

Post by legionof7 »

turc1656 wrote: post #11
brndnmtthws wrote: post #3

VPNs for everyone?

Yep. Beat me to making the comment. This is already a solved problem. A VPN solves this problem quite well. Only exception I see is overall bandwidth usage. They'll obviously still see the total amount of traffic going across their lines and may throttle that, but that would apply to everyone equally, which I don't have an issue with. Since they won't be able to see the traffic due to encryption, they can't inhibit/b…

Existing ISP's wouln't ban VPN's because of business use but they could make a special high cost lane just for VPN's.

Re: Startups Seek Tech Solution to Net Neutrality Repeal

#35

Post by KajMagnus »

glaberficken wrote: post #10
illumin8 wrote: post #7

Anyone know how to read the article behind the paywall?

click "web" under the title here on HN that will take you to a google search click trough there and you wont be "paywalled"

Doesn't work for me :-/ it's still paywalled although I access it via the 'web' link and search results page. I tested disabling Javascript too, didn't help.

Re: Startups Seek Tech Solution to Net Neutrality Repeal

#36

Post by pjdemers »

The ISPs will offer full NN access for $100 a month extra. If some startup comes along with similar service, the ISPs will cut the NN price to $50 per month extra until the startup is gone. That is the whole point of repealing NN: ISPs want to be able to offer premium services at premium prices.

Re: Startups Seek Tech Solution to Net Neutrality Repeal

#37

Post by g09980 »

Startups existed just fine before 2015 (when the repealed regulation was passed.) So why this now?

I loathe Comcast & AT&T as much as any other person, but it seems like this issue has been sensationalized/editorialized so that any sensible commentary is drowned out.

Edit: Well, this is an unpopular opinion (-2 points currently).

Re: Startups Seek Tech Solution to Net Neutrality Repeal

#38

Post by turc1656 »

runako wrote: post #24
turc1656 wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or fixing an already solved problem. Using a VPN addresses basically everything they are trying to fix.

ISPs can trivially prioritize content from preferred providers while throttling all other traffic, including VPN traffic. VPNs do not solve this problem.

yeah but all your internet traffic would then be throttled. Not just certain services. Using a VPN essentially takes away everything from them and reduces their only tool to a hammer and forcing everything to look like a nail. There is no granularity. All your traffic goes to one location. They can't see what it is or what the final endpoint is because of encryption. So they can't use it to build a profile/data on you to sell. They can't inject ads into HTML or block services that compete with their own, or even grant privileged speeds to approved or preferred services. They basically are forced into a Shakespearean "to throttle or not to throttle" binary choice.

Re: Startups Seek Tech Solution to Net Neutrality Repeal

#39

Post by thaumaturgy »

Danihan wrote: post #2

Isn't the solution just more ISP competition?

A local ISP in a semi-rural area has been putting their business on the line for over a decade now to build out broadband in the area. They're targeting under-served, denser housing swaths of the region where there is little to no broadband competition.

The price tag for the initial stage of the build out is in the several millions of dollars. The first-stage service area would be under 1,000 homes. They hope to charge around $100/mo for the service.

So, you do the math. Is that a business model you'd want to try to live off of?

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