I wonder if a bunch of Internet companies (Netflix, Alphabet, etc) could gang up and collectively block an ISP...? Could give them quite interesting leverage in negotiations.
Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast
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Re: Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast
#82The Sherlocks from TechChrunch are onto something. It turns out if you don't want to pay for services you may need to build your own.
Said differently, Net Neutrality is nonsense. Nothing prevents these freeloaders from buying xSPs and Telcos if they don't want to be their customers.
Re: Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast
#83This the end of innovation in online videos: "When companies like Netflix, which today closed with a market cap of almost $158 billion, can’t necessarily get enough negotiating power to ensure that consumers have direct access to them, no startup can ever hope to compete. America may believe in its entrepreneurs, but its competition laws have done nothing to keep the terrain open for them. Those implications are just…
Is it? Startups manage to continue to exist on the Google Play Store and on the iOS App Store, even though Apple and Google directly compete with many of their offerings. Consumers basically have just two choices for mobile platform, but somehow that's enough competition to keep the kind of behavior you talk about in check.
Difference is mobile platforms, as their name implies, are not geographically locked. There aren't android or apple only counties, there are however Comcast or Spectrum only counties. This means the cost of switching is too high to really be considered in competition.
Re: Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
You must live in one of the few places in the US where high-speed internet is available through multiple providers. That is definitely not the norm. Most people won't be able to simply switch to the least nasty provider.
More than half of US households have multiple wired broadband providers: https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/06/50-mi... This does not include wireless broadband options. Could the competitive situation be better? Absolutely. But it is, in fact, the "norm" to have a choice.
The study limited to 100 MBPS. It should have included more tiers like 200, 300, 500, and 1000 to provide a better picture. Once you go past 100 MBPS, there tends to be only one widely available choice per region. This choice is either Comcast or Verizon.
Re: Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast
#85I wonder if a bunch of Internet companies (Netflix, Alphabet, etc) could gang up and collectively block an ISP...? Could give them quite interesting leverage in negotiations.
It would be more effective to just buy the house senate and presidency, they collectively have the budget.
Re: Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast
#86Earlier quoted context omitted.
I just fail to see how Comcast or Verizon are going to be selling you their internet connection if you won't be able to connect to the things you want to connect to (like Netflix, iTunes, YouTube) through them. Especially on higher plans, people buy a lot of bandwidth so that they can stream videos, that's how ISPs up-sell to them. If they start throttling, they'll be selling an empty bucket, and it's not going to be…
You must live in one of the few places in the US where high-speed internet is available through multiple providers. That is definitely not the norm. Most people won't be able to simply switch to the least nasty provider.
Yep after moving from MI to NoVA the contrast is night and day my house has both Verizon FIOS and Comcast 2 Gigabit options available and a bunch of smaller providers.
Re: Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
All books are now sold with a small display attached that gives you a URL. The book is magnetically sealed until you take out your phone, navigate to that URL, and watch an ad.
My angle grinder says hi.
It's a flimsy plastic lock and all you need is a cheap pair of snips, but now you're under arrest for "defeating anti-piracy protections."
Re: Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast
#88Technically now that net neutrality is gone, everyone who routes your packets can ask for money for them to pass through their network not slowed down and de-prioritized.
So becoming an ISP if you are a high traffic Web company changes nothing, unless you also own entire network from source to destination.
Re: Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast
#89Another strategy to this (not exclusive of other strategies) is to encourage municipal ISPs, or even go further and roll out federal ISP infrastructure ala the federal highway system. I've always thought that this would be well within the rubric of the USPS. The constitutional mandate for a postal service was drafted at a time when the internet could not have been conceived of. I would argue that the intent of the co…
> Also, take away right of way to private ISPs, and let citizens and municipalities charge arbitrary amounts for anything going over their property. That would make private ISPs go away.
Perhaps. I'd prefer it not to--I'd rather have an ecosystem with private and public competition, and one with net neutrality regulation. But it seems to me the discussion is generally really lopsided, with little to no acknowledgment of what ISPs get from the public. If the ISPs really want unfettered competition, then I say fine--but I think, as you say, if we really took competition seriously the consequences would be far more dire for them than I think people realize. The problem is the scope of what real competition would entail is often obscured, because what they get from the public is just sort of assumed to be a given and off the table.
Re: Netflix and Alphabet will need to become ISPs, fast
#90Isn’t there a chance a subsequent administration could “reinstate” net neutrality? If so what’d that mean for Comcast, AT&T, etc.? Or are there ways such a move could be blocked?