81–90 of 165 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Two of the best ISPs in my area here in Montana are Montana owned. One is even a co-op. I don't think it would be too painful to have Charter or Century Link leave the state.
So then this would seem to be a good argument against the idea of Comcast or Century Link being a monopoly and a serious argument against the idea that net neutrality needs laws to enforce it.
So, as someone with no knowledge of the landscape in Montana, I'm wondering: how many ISPs are there who would pick Montana state contracts over the ability to throttle and prioritize traffic?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Montana is considered a Western state, not midwest. I agree it's somewhat surprising, but Montana is dominated (population-wise) by relatively left-leaning population centers. I'd consider it to be a libertarian leaning western state similar to Colorado but without the insanely religious component of Colorado Springs.
And without the CA transplants who (I'm generalizing here) lean left to the point where "libretarian" is not a good descriptor for any government they have a meaningful say in. Montana might be a western state but as far as most people on the coasts (also generalizing) care or know (is there a difference) if you don't have saltwater coastline or a big city you're a backwards flyover state with nothing much going on.
So, as someone with no knowledge of the landscape in Montana, I'm wondering: how many ISPs are there who would pick Montana state contracts over the ability to throttle and prioritize traffic?
My friend made an app that lets you peek at the State Checkbook and see what ISP's are getting checks. http://www.porkcast.com/
For this requirement to have any meaning, Montana would need to be able to enforce it (ie choose another isp). But that would show that the isp landscape isn't owned by monopolies. This would actually seriously undermine many arguments as to why net neutrality needs laws to protect it over what the market can do. I wonder is if we will start to find out that maybe the isp market isn't as closed as we thought - wirele…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
My friend made an app that lets you peek at the State Checkbook and see what ISP's are getting checks. http://www.porkcast.com/
Looks like it's gone. The domain is for sale.
Not to be against state's rights here, but isn't Net Neutrality anti-business? If a state goes it alone, does it risk pro-business components who might leave the state? Curiosity vs. equality slant, so not looking to pick a bone here. Real question ..
Depends on which business we're talking about. Also, why do I care if it's pro or anti business? Things like mandatory sick days are good for the people, but considered "anti business".
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A pretty solo point. I think that story is more about the candidate than any particular party. Note one of the comments in the article: Both papers, the Missoulian and the Billings Gazette, issued scathing denunciations of Gianforte.
He did win though, so while there may have been unusual circumstances suggested by other commenters - he had some support of the people of the state.
The headline is a little misleading. The state is not implementing rules or regulations for net neutrality. It is simply requiring, as a condition of contracting with the state, that ISPs abide by the principles of net neutrality. If an ISP does not have any state contracts, it is free to do whatever it wants under the federal law. Many jurisdictions attach such conditions to entering into a contract with the jurisdi…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
And without the CA transplants who (I'm generalizing here) lean left to the point where "libretarian" is not a good descriptor for any government they have a meaningful say in. Montana might be a western state but as far as most people on the coasts (also generalizing) care or know (is there a difference) if you don't have saltwater coastline or a big city you're a backwards flyover state with nothing much going on.
You're probably not wrong about "most people on the coasts" (I'm from WA and live in CA) but I think those of us on the west coast are far less inclined than east coasters to dismiss Western states like UT, MT, WY, NV, CO, etc, as "midwest". I think to the east coast it's often "somewhere over there in the middle" and not realizing how far west they really are, and how similar in many ways the culture is to the Pacif…
I notice no difference.