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FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality

wired.com

311–320 of 437 posts

Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality

#311
post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know Wheeler, but don't understand why having been a lobbyist (or aspiring to be one again) would make him more "friendly" to that industry: The tougher he is on them, the more they should eventually be willing to pay him to switch sides again, right?

If he did so, he'd seem more like a greedy opportunist rather than someone genuinely interested in pushing the industry's goals.

I don't think that's perceived as a negative in that particular line of work.

Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality

#312

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This reads exceedingly well but the devil is in the detail. As we have seen countless times that there is significant difference between what gets proposed and what gets passed. As others have stated > will ban paid prioritization, and the blocking and throttling of lawful content and services. the keyword here is lawful. Will all content be lawful unless proven otherwise?

Will this ban blocking of tethering?

Blocking of tethering was already banned, it just isn't enforced that carriers must provide tethering.

Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality

#313
post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He got a 3/2 split on the redefinition of broadband with one of the yeas publicly admitting that she would have rather seen 100Mbit as the threshold. It stands to reason that this will pass too with the current committee makeup. If the GOP wins 2016, however, the future may not be so bright once they install their pro-business people and fix all of this "Socialist" claptrap.

Good. Why people want the government's hand's deeper in the internet than now is beyond me. Look at mobile data (exempt from title II) versus "broadband"/cable speeds. Wheeler actually points to the success of title II on "mobile" while ignoring the fact that it only applied to voice. Meanwhile, all the relevant growth and innovation occurred in data. I have to say I'ld like to see the "socialist claptrap", feel-good…

Wireless carriers compete directly with one another on price and performance regardless of geo. There's no local monopoly. Huge difference.

Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality

#314
post #45

I violated Responsible Reading Of The Internet Rule #1 and accidentally looked at the comments. I am having a hard time reconciling the vehement anti-net-neutrality anti-government hair-on-fire screaming there with the reasoned discussion and general attitude here---I would have thought the majority of readers of Wired would be of similar mind to HN readers.

I highly recommend this Chrome extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/shut-up/oklfoejikk... Basically hides the comments on every site unless you enable them. It's a little aggressive and sometimes if you notice something weird on a site you just need to disable it for that site. But it honestly improves the entire internet experience exponentially.

I added this line:

  127.0.0.1	disqus.com
to /etc/hosts and have actually noticed a measurable increase in my happiness, especially when it comes to reading and discussing news.

Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality

#315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a federal/state/local government declares something illegal, they can shut it down within their jurisdiction. There is no "I'm on the internet so you can't enforce laws" get out of jail free card.

The main concern seemed to be weather or not it was on the burden of the state to prove illegal content before blocking or if it was on the user to prove their content is legal to prevent blocking.

I imagine it would be the burden of the ISP to prove illegal content before blocking. They're the ones doing the blocking, and if they block the wrong stuff, they're the ones going to court.

Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality

#316
post #297

I read this as beneficial to the wireless data carriers. Toward the bottom: "there will be no rate regulation, no tariffs, no last-mile unbundling" Meaning no more MVNOs and no more competition other than the "big 4". Read the arstech article here: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/06/we-dont-need-net-... to see how unbundling would have been best for the consumer; without it, looks like the wireless co's win b…

MVNOs don't exist because of regulation - they exist because some wireless carriers have decided that they'd rather sell wholesale access to their network instead of leaving the market entirely to their competitors.

I don't have a problem with the lack of unbundling. I was a Covad customer for a number of years, and it was atrocious - whenever there was an issue, Covad and Ameritech/SBC/AT&T would go round and round with finger-pointing. Later, when AT&T began their U-verse (FTTN) deployment, Covad was shut out, stuck with the longer copper lines all the way back to the CO.

Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality

#317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The FCC exists by authority of Congress. Congress can expand or limit this authority at will, including any regulations promulgated by the FCC. So, Congress can basically do what it wants. This is true of any federal agency. The "independent" part means independent of the President, as they are not part of the executive branch. However, I don't think Congress will act in this case. One reason Congress delegates regul…

> As a Republican, it seems to me the FCC has taken a balanced approach to regulation in this case, so I don't see much negative feedback by Congress. What about the extremist anti-regulatory positions of many in the GOP? Not every Republican thinks that way, but enough to do generate a lot of noise and elect a substantial portion of Congress.

It's true my first reaction was against internet regulation. If it ain't broke... However, I read his statement, and his decision seems well considered. And, the regulations are in the direction of ensuring openness. My biggest concern is that now that there is regulation, it can go in any direction in the future.

Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality

#318
post #310

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The FCC allows companies to throttle whatever they want, but requires all the data to be provided publicly, and they make press releases every so often specifying which companies throttle and which don't. That would solve your not knowing problem. Ok, so we're back to regulating again? Do you want a free market or not? I don't understand how forcing companies to provide transparency data is not regulation. How is t…

>Do you want a free market or not? I don't understand how forcing companies to provide transparency data is not regulation. How is this any better in your eyes than forcing them to treat all data the same? I explained this in my other comment so I'll just paste it here: >I did say I'm not opposed to all regulation. Free markets only work perfectly with perfect information, so I support almost any regulation that's ab…

Allowing corporations to throttle traffic, while forcing them to be public about what they throttle, seems like an idea that would work in theory but at the same time quite taxing on the consumer. Click-through EULAs are all public, but how many people read them? It just seems like a business practice that ISPs will exploit and obfuscate, and most customers will sign on to them not knowing exactly how or why their data gets throttled.

Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality

#319
post #283

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know Wheeler, but don't understand why having been a lobbyist (or aspiring to be one again) would make him more "friendly" to that industry: The tougher he is on them, the more they should eventually be willing to pay him to switch sides again, right?

If he did so, he'd seem more like a greedy opportunist rather than someone genuinely interested in pushing the industry's goals.

It's good to require purity from people. It teaches them to lie to everyone so they can meet an unmeetable standard.

See also: all modern politics.

Re: FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality

#320

Apparently I'm in the minority here, but I have some concerns. 1) The problem this fixes is largely non-existent today. The threat of fast and slow-lanes is one I've yet to experience. 2) Opening the door for more internet regulation seems risky. At first, things may go swimmingly, but I suspect regulatory capture will creep up on this industry, just as it has so many others. You may trust Obama and the current FCC h…

What? The Netflix/Verizon paid peering agreement was a fast/slow lane issue, was it not?

The Netflix/Verizon paid peering agreement was a saturated links issue. Netflix wasn't being specifically throttled, their transit provider couldn't negotiate enough interlink capacity with last-mile providers to fulfill their obligations to Netflix.
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