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FCC Chairman: This Is How We Will Ensure Net Neutrality

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

#431
post #409

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would unbundling without rate regulation be bad? The network owner could set the wholesale price at one that is still profitable, no?

> Why would unbundling without rate regulation be bad? > The network owner could set the wholesale price at one that is still profitable, no? Yes. For example $10,000 per month. I'm not trying to be clever here. The ISPs seemingly don't want to lease out their lines, or else they would probably have done it already. So if we wish to force the ISPs to lease out their lines, we will have to set a maximum price, either…

That's a good point.

So then, how did unbundling + price setting negatively impact the expansion of telephone lines?

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

#432
post #418
post #385

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many things that are worth doing are difficult. This is one of them.

My point was mostly that the argument for doing so w/ DSL is more cut-and-dry in that most/all of the infrastructure was laid under a nation-wide government-granted monopoly. The Federal government weighing in on the matter makes sense.

I agree with you except where you imply that the Federal government weighing in on cable doesn't make sense.

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

#433

Make a deal with the Devil and you'll only get burned. The FCC regulating the internet, what could go wrong?

I stopped arguing with them months ago. Now I just want this to pass exactly as they want ... Then I get to watch it blow up in their faces.

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

#434
post #406

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Big mistake. Government regulation kills innovation. Do you really want the technology sector to end up looking like the healthcare system or the state run education system? Everything government touches turns to crap. To believe that government regulation with make anything better is not very intelligent.

Yes, you really do. Just not the American versions of those things, because Americans screw those things up, not Government . Look outside your country and those things are very good successes.

Americans have the unusual belief that it's a good idea to elect and appoint members of government that believe government is good for nothing and can't do anything right.

For some reason this attitude has not led to effective, efficient governance.

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

#435
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…

> 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.

Innovation like single-gig data caps? Or do you mean innovation like "unlimited data, except no streaming and no hotspots"?

Compared to the voice situation on mobile, or to landline Internet, mobile Internet is garbage. I don't understand what you mean. Heck, IME, 50mbps landline Internet is easier to get than 4G Internet is outside of cities. And the price isn't much better either. I pay $50/mo for 50mbps down for cable Internet, I pay $40/mo for my 2GB capped Verizon Internet which is 4G (sometimes).

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

#436
post #191

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what they'll swear to you, but of course the government will use it for censorship just like the FCC nowadays censors the TV and Radio. Read up the history of the FCC. At the time it was also "necessary" to regulate airwaves because of several noble reasons but of course what ends up happening is that now you have to get a license from the government to say something on radio waves. You will have to get a lice…

I don't think people should be downvoting you, but I think you're conflating a bunch of things. For radio, the broadcasting space is limited and multiple people broadcasting onto the same frequencies would ruin it for everyone. By your standard, why haven't they started censoring telephone conversations? The pressures that brought the FCC into putting those regulations in place just don't make sense for the internet.

> multiple people broadcasting onto the same frequencies would ruin it for everyone.

Let's see who is conflating things. Enforcing the rights of frequency band owners has nothing to do with needing an FCC. All you need is regular enforcement of property rights. If someone has a right to use a frequency and someone else is disturbing that right then they will be prosecuted according to the law. Just like with land.

Ok, so what's the problem with the FCC? If I find a frequency that is unassigned (no current owner) and unused (no current squatter) then I can't start using it (homesteading) and I can't acquire property rights from mixing my labor with it. Instead, I have to go to the FCC and hope they approve me for broadcast license; and they will approve it or not depending on their political opinions about what I am going to be saying in that frequency. Also, broadcasting licenses are non-transferable so I can't buy your license even if we both agree on the transaction - the FCC needs to vet me first. This is a huge problem, as I hope you can see. That means the government must approve of my message before I can say it. It is an impingement on free speech. If people could yell high enough that others could hear without needing radio waves (websites = yelling high enough) then the government would want to curb that too (and indeed it is, with Net Neutrality).

Hopefully this clarifies my point.

> why haven't they started censoring telephone conversations

Because it is usually two-way, with both parties usually being part of the government's tax farm (ie. regular folks), in which case there's more in it for the government if they record our conversations than if they censored it (which would make people weary of communicating, and harder for the government to spy on its citizens).

Also the telephone is usually one-to-one communication, not one-to-many like radio stations, tv channels and internet websites. So the damage from unwanted information getting out to the public at large easily, and therefore the need to censor it, are almost non-existent.

And just to clarify for the impolite person below, Karunamon:

By censorhip I don't mean censoring existing stations. I mean disallowing stations from ever coming to be, because the FCC disagrees politically with the folks asking for a broadcast license. The public at large ends up losing out, because they have only government-approved stations to listen to, and never get to hear truly dissenting opinions. This is curbed free speech.

As for the excuse that one must get a license to prove they are technically capable, a technical test would suffice, just like a technical test suffices for handling guns. The government can't choose not to give guns to people of certain political opinions, but it can choose not to give broadcast licenses to those people. That's what's wrong. If you own a frequency and it is disturbed you have the right to sue and collect reparation from the person who disturbed your property. The FCC is not needed for this just as there's no FCC for land - if someone disturbs your land you call the police.

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

#437

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>This seems to be strong evidence that government is better at keeping trade free than an 'unregulated free market'? X isn't perfect, so Y must be better? That makes no sense. I'm pro-free market because I go into the grocery store and see an entire row of bread. In communism, there is an entire row of people waiting for bread. Free market == abundance, government == rationing. I use communism as the example because…

Is this the bread 'choice' you're talking about? http://i.imgur.com/pnMMj.jpg Every thing in the supermarket is created by a small amount of companies. The rest is all marketing. Unregulated free market doesn't stay free for long because competition is rapidly consolidated, squashed, or absorbed by larger fish into mega monopolies. A free market is just as crazy as communism as both have the end result of a small gro…

Cool info-graphic, it proves nothing other than a few parent companies own a lot of brands across different food categories. Why? Because no one will buy Pepsi bread or Kraft soda.

You have plenty of choices, at least 5 distinct parent companies that make different brands, smaller and still independent brands, a small local bakery, buy the ingredients and make it yourself, or start a bread business and sell out to Kraft and buy yourself a private island.

When everyone is waiting in line for bread it's because they have no choice.

Is it possible that you're too spoiled to see how spoiled you are? Are you one of those 99%'ers that protested against big companies in the rain wearing your North Face jacket, Merrell boots, and tweeted about how much big companies suck from your iphone?

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