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FCC aims to reinstate net neutrality after us Democrats gain control of panel

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Re: FCC aims to reinstate net neutrality after us Democrats gain control of panel

#31
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

ISPs are offering 'Netflix-included' or discounted Disney+ plans. I don't know how they account for downloads from these services but the bundling is definitely happening.

Data caps (and services being excluded from them) are different though, aren't they? IIRC these were already happening before net neutrality rules were removed.

It’s about different data caps for different services. It’s favoring one service over another. Especially when many of those services are owned by the same company that owns the ISP, it’s completely anti-competitive.

When your new high bandwidth service counts against a customer’s data cap, but your Comcast owned competitor’s data doesn’t, how are you supposed to fairly compete?

Re: FCC aims to reinstate net neutrality after us Democrats gain control of panel

#32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Exempting services from data caps is not against net neutrality, and for example has been regular practice all across Europe (which has "net neutrality"). UPS doesn't care if it is a Nike shirt or a Gucci shirt in a box, They just deliver the box where it is meant to go. Why should it be any different for an ISP?

UPS certainly does care, a Gucci shirt is going to have more insurance, maybe require a signature.

[deleted]

Re: FCC aims to reinstate net neutrality after us Democrats gain control of panel

#33
At my previous job I worked on a digital campaign protesting the repeal of Net Neutrality[0]. It was a nice technical challenge to save (and render) those millions of leaflets. More about the project here[1]

[0]: https://paperstorm.it/

[1]: https://studiomoniker.com/projects/paperstorm

Re: FCC aims to reinstate net neutrality after us Democrats gain control of panel

#35
I don't see the point of NN as long as the only "service providers" it applies to are the ones implementing layers And with NN being championed by a lot of the same services that cut off the above-mentioned it seems less like something meant to preserve the freedom of the Internet and more like something meant to keep one group of corporations in control of it.

Re: FCC aims to reinstate net neutrality after us Democrats gain control of panel

#36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Exempting services from data caps is not against net neutrality, and for example has been regular practice all across Europe (which has "net neutrality"). UPS doesn't care if it is a Nike shirt or a Gucci shirt in a box, They just deliver the box where it is meant to go. Why should it be any different for an ISP?

UPS certainly does care, a Gucci shirt is going to have more insurance, maybe require a signature.

UPS doesn't care. The sender/receiver care and may want to use the insurance option. But UPS knows the value / type of passage, not the contents.

Re: FCC aims to reinstate net neutrality after us Democrats gain control of panel

#37

One of the biggest arguments I remember being made back when net neutrality was a hot topic was that ISPs would bundle and sell specific websites as tiered plans. Infographics like this one [1] were shared widely. Has this happened in the US? I’ve definitely seen ISPs start to apply data caps and throttling, but haven’t seen the aforementioned packaging (at least with the major ISPs). I ask because this is one of the…

We have gotten it, but with services not websites. Mobile providers will sell you an "Unlimited" data plan that throttles everything after 25GB a month. Streaming Spotify and Apple Music won't count against that soft data cap. Streaming other music services will count against it. Video streaming over YouTube, Netflix, etc is capped at 480p levels. If you pay an additional monthly fee, you get upgraded to "Unlimited P…

Didn’t arbitrary data caps start back in the day when torrenting was a big problem? The ISPs started cutting people off because only piracy could explain such heavy usage. That was in the early 00’s iirc, prior to the net neutrality debate.

Re: FCC aims to reinstate net neutrality after us Democrats gain control of panel

#38
If you believed the scare tactics at the time, losing net neutrality literally threatened the end of the internet as we know it. But my internet has worked the same before, during, and after net neutrality. I really don't get what all the fuss is about.

However, if you really do believe this is a civilization defining piece of regulation, Why leave it to the FCC? It seems like people on both sides are happy to leave this super duper important decision to a bunch of unelected bureaucrats. Everyone loves executive overreach when its their side that does it I guess.

Re: FCC aims to reinstate net neutrality after us Democrats gain control of panel

#39

interesting that nobody is talking about how net neutrality is needed to prevent censorship anymore

Now the main thread of discussion seems to be that NN is really convenient for Netflix's business model as if i should care.

Re: FCC aims to reinstate net neutrality after us Democrats gain control of panel

#40
Provided network neutrality is limited to banning 'bundling' - meaning some services do not count against a data cap but others do - I think it's an unqualified good. If it goes beyond that, it gets stickier for wireless operators - because of the shared access medium inherent to wireless, you must do much more in the way of network optimization than you would on a wireline operator.

I'd be much more comfortable with treating information services as common carriers, which has an existing regulatory and interpretive framework to decide what that means - most of which can be directly applied to information services (internet access).

I get this is a somewhat unpopular opinion, but I don't trust the courts to decide cases which are highly technical in nature.

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