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F.C.C., in ‘Net Neutrality’ Turnaround, Plans to Allow Fast Lane

nytimes.com

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Re: F.C.C., in ‘Net Neutrality’ Turnaround, Plans to Allow Fast Lane

#81

Post by Selfcommit »

higherpurpose wrote: post #23
sroerick wrote: post #10

It's so frustrating to me that this is all based around the stupid legal assumption that we have to stream everything. God forbid your user should download something to watch later, to prevent having to redownload every time you watch it. And then during peak Netflix hours, I just can't use the internet reliably. If anyone knows any source for Libre video works, that I can download and watch with complete freedom, pl…

If you had a 100 Mbps connection, like many other countries do, streaming Netflix in HD would not be a problem. So this is first and foremost a lazy monopolist problem, less so a congestion problem.

I have a 100mbps connection.. I live in NJ. It costs me $80 a month (Which is robbery IMO).

But still, I have it.

Re: F.C.C., in ‘Net Neutrality’ Turnaround, Plans to Allow Fast Lane

#82

Post by AnthonyMouse »

ChrisLTD wrote: post #50
sroerick wrote: post #10

It's so frustrating to me that this is all based around the stupid legal assumption that we have to stream everything. God forbid your user should download something to watch later, to prevent having to redownload every time you watch it. And then during peak Netflix hours, I just can't use the internet reliably. If anyone knows any source for Libre video works, that I can download and watch with complete freedom, pl…

Another wrinkle: The popular devices for viewing online video, Rokus, Apple TVs, gaming consoles, tablets, and phones have little to no storage space for meaningful amounts of HD video.

The answer to this is to have a DVR attached to the network which takes care of the storage and then stream to all the other devices anywhere in the building.

Re: F.C.C., in ‘Net Neutrality’ Turnaround, Plans to Allow Fast Lane

#83

Post by kefka »

darrenkopp wrote: post #42

Signed up for yesterday, had to pay $5 comcast tax for HBO go (HBO = $15, them "letting" me use HBO go - $5). This system is bull shit.

You have a choice.

You can always NOT pay the HBO "tax" and pirate it like the rest of us.

Re: F.C.C., in ‘Net Neutrality’ Turnaround, Plans to Allow Fast Lane

#86

Post by [deleted] »

Zigurd wrote: post #48
dandrews wrote: post #30

Legislating "net neutrality" is a crude hack. The real problem is telco hegemony in the ISP space, as pointed out in John Gilmore's 2010 essay at http://www.nnsquad.org/archives/nnsquad/msg04177.html

That isn't really true. Let's say we get structural separation and retail competition (which is a fantasy in our current situation). The backbone providers could still become rent-seekers by putting the arm on whatever service lacks technical alternatives to large amounts of bandwidth (which the retail customers already pay for). The retailers have more negotiating power than consumers do, but there is still a place…

[deleted]

Re: F.C.C., in ‘Net Neutrality’ Turnaround, Plans to Allow Fast Lane

#87

Post by xcntktn »

redthrowaway wrote: post #31
markbao wrote: post #6

Honestly—who does this benefit, apart from ISPs?

Entrenched services that can pay the premium. It's their "don't worry about upstart competitors" tax.

Yep. There will never be another video or audio streaming startup after today. Doors closed, ladder pulled up behind them, that's it, finished. The ones that exist today are all there will ever be. Sound crazy? Exaggerated? Check back in 10 years and see.

Re: F.C.C., in ‘Net Neutrality’ Turnaround, Plans to Allow Fast Lane

#88

Post by mmanfrin »

This makes my blood boil. The FCC is perhaps the one agency that could do something to step the dominance of the internet in the US by Comcast/Verizon, as nothing seems like it will happen legislatively. I have a feeling things will get a lot worse before they begin to get better.

Re: F.C.C., in ‘Net Neutrality’ Turnaround, Plans to Allow Fast Lane

#89

Post by tzs »

jebblue wrote: post #19
parfe wrote: post #9

In six months FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler will be a VP at NBC Universal/Comcast. Not a bribe; just coincidence.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Wheeler_(FCC) "Tom Wheeler is the current Chairman of the FCC.[1] Prior to working at the FCC, Wheeler worked as a venture capitalist and lobbyist for the cable and wireless industry." Wow. This looks especially bad for consumers.

By "prior", they mean 30 years ago, at a time when the cable industry was the underdog fighting against the powerful broadcasters, and cable lobbyist [1] was a pro-consumer job.

Looking at what he's been involved in since then [2], it's all over the place. There's stuff in cable, stuff in wireless, stuff in phone, co-founder of a company that repairs aerospace components, PBS director, and a bunch of other things. I'm kind of at a loss to comprehend how someone can have held so many positions.

[1] It's not all clear that lobbyist is even accurate. He was the head of the largest cable industry trade association. Lobbying was one of the things they did. Calling their executives "lobbyists" would be kind of like calling the head of the American Medical Association a lobbyist.

[2] http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/pe...

Re: F.C.C., in ‘Net Neutrality’ Turnaround, Plans to Allow Fast Lane

#90

Post by AnthonyMouse »

davmre wrote: post #68
noobermin wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, this is not quite equivalent, but consider mobile platforms. Streaming makes much more sense there given the tighter storage constraints.

Shouldn't it be exactly the opposite? Mobile is hugely bandwidth-limited, but you can get a 128GB SD card for ~$75 these days. The real reason for streaming is that most people don't know in advance what they want to watch, and with TV/movies, generally only watch something once.

> The real reason for streaming is that most people don't know in advance what they want to watch, and with TV/movies, generally only watch something once.

I don't know if this is really true. How do you find out about something you want to watch? You see a commercial for it, or somebody tells you about it, etc. If all you had to do was pull your phone out of your pocket and click a button that says "download this when it becomes available" and then be presented with a list of such stuff the next time you want to watch something, you would pretty easily end up with more stuff to watch than time to watch it.

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