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Net Neutrality
- Thread starter Crabtownboy
- Start date
Seems to me like it's working pretty well. But not being extremely savvy on the subject, just how could the government improve it? Or............
Is it about improvement or is it about control and money...specifically by and for the government?
As I mentioned previously, if the government is going to regulate anything it should be a mandated minimum connection speed, let's say 50 Mbps.
It's not about improvement. It's about guaranteeing access for everyone at a crappy connection speed. I'm sure there is some government control lurking in there too.
Fellow, they already tax lots of services that are not utilities. Being a utility has nothing to do with taxing a service.
Experience. We in Maryland will not have to start paying sales tax on all items bought from Amazon as they have built a huge warehouse in the state. So, it has been ruled the state can collect a sales tax on anything sold to a person in Maryland. It will become much worse for all of us if net neutrality is done away with.
And your stance will result in creating the problem we do not want.
Yes I am serious. The head of the FCC is in favor of ruling against him. Of course he came from the business world and likes to help business. He will rule with Obama only if enough pressure is put on him to issue rulings helping he American people instead of creating more costs and poorer service to them if they do not pay more. And even then businesses will be given more favorable channels of communications and you and I less good ones.
You are arguing to create poorer service to yourself with additional costs. Do some reading and become educated. Stop playing stupid political politics on an issue that is not at its heart political, but economic.
CTB - you're against sales tax on the internet, but you'd be okay with federal utility-like taxes on it? But we would get much higher tax revenue from sales tax....
And arguing for the ISPs, or arguing for Obama's proposal--we get poorer service either way.
And arguing for the ISPs, or arguing for Obama's proposal--we get poorer service either way.
I did not say I was for the feds taxing the Internet. I was simply pointing out the fallacy of BroC saying the only reason to call it a utility is so they can tax it. They can tax it no matter what it is called or not called. I do not want it taxed, but that carries no weight on what the Feds will or will not do.
Read what the service providers want to do with a non-neutral net and see how it would make things worse for you, the average user. If you want to pay an extra charge to the ISPs for downloading a movie, for watching a sporting event, for watching anything the ISPs decided they want to charge a fee for, then do away with net neutrality but don't complain when it comes back to bite your pocketbook.
Wheeler, the head of the FCC is a former lobbyist for the telecommunications industry, i.e. internet providers and other. So it is understandable that his interest lies in helping them at the expense of your and me.
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I think you mean to say we have started to pay sales tax on items purchased from Amazon BECAUSE they have a distribution center within the state. That is the situation here in Minnesota. Did not pay sales tax on Amazon items until they put a distribution center here.
What? How are state sales taxes related to net neutrality?
That's NOT how it's going to work. The ISPs will charge content providers, those like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, VuDu, etc. more money to use their internet infrastructure that is used to deliver their product to consumers. These content providers in turn, will need to raise rates with their consumer subscribers. A more likely scenario is that it will cost a customer $5.95 to download a movie from VuDu, but only $3.95 to do it from Comcast because Comcast owns the hardware being used to deliver the movie into people's homes.
They are not net neutral and I am not for them. This is a chipping away of net neutrality and if net neutrality goes away there will be many more fees and probably taxes imposed on us.
Isn't is possible you will pay $5.95 to VuDu and $3.95 to Comcast and end up paying $9.90 for the package?
Comcast can deliver the movie free of their charge as you are already paying them for the service.
Explain. If Obama gets his way and can empower the government to regulate the internet, BY DEFINITION, that means they will have an easier time imposing new taxes on it.
There are already four different taxes on my cable bill.
If the internet is classified as a utility, that means providers must get government approval before they raise rates (just like electricity and gas utilities). That means public hearings in front of political boards. That means a dumbing down of services to the least common denominator and a base level of inefficiency. ISP's are not going to innovate or upgrade equipment unless the government allows them to do it.
I'm all for net neutrality, just not the "Let's make the internet a utility" idea.
I think you are way out of your league here. I don't think you understand how content is delivered by the various providers.
Comcast has movies on demand, where you pay for each movie over cable TV. Comcast charges you a monthly cable TV fee to get a package of channels to watch and to be able to have the option to pay for a movie on demand.
VuDu, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, are video on demand services that stream over the internet. It happens that these services typically use the cable TV companies equipment to bring their content into people's homes. Example: I have my cable TV with Comcast and my internet access with Comcast. (I could get my internet through my phone company but they have lousy service and slower connection speeds.) So I get VuDu over the internet but it comes to my house via Comcast's buried coax cables.
Now, if I want to watch the movie "Argo", it doesn't come included with my cable TV package with Comcast, it's an extra on demand charge. I can check prices on Comcast, VuDu and Amazon Prime. I can then select whichever provider I deem has the best price and signal quality.
Then there is the ability to stream movies over your phone. They would be subject to your data usage with your cell phone provider.
But, Comcast and VuDu do not come as a package, and most movies on Comcast that are relatively new releases are pay to watch, a separate charge from your monthly cable bill.
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I tend to stay out of these debates when they involve technology, because I cringe at the technology inept and their attempts to debate something they don't understand.
In this case, I can't let this slide by however. Veronica was a search engine for Gopher. Archie was a search engine for FTP. Neither of these legacy search engines are used by any type of mainstream, or even close to mainstream, site today. Gopher is only used by those hobbyists wishing to relive the past. FTP is still widely used, but nothing is powered by Archie for searching FTP.
Nobody has accused anybody of anything until you showed up. Everyone has been respectful, and is merely asking C.T.Boy to clarify his position.
Sold their soul ? What a crock.
We know how democrats work. Obama promised nobody who liked their insurance would lose it, then told the people who did end up losing it that their insurance was substandard.
Now Obama wants to do the same with the internet. Yeah, you are right. I don't trust him.
The internet is already neutral, and the person who started this thread has no idea what he is talking about.
Now Obama wants to do the same with the internet. Yeah, you are right. I don't trust him.
The internet is already neutral, and the person who started this thread has no idea what he is talking about.
Here's the free market reaction to Obama's plan:
AT&T to pause fiber spending on net neutrality uncertainty
(Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N) will stop investing in new high-speed Internet connections in 100 U.S. cities until regulators decide whether to enact tough "net neutrality" rules proposed by President Obama, Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson said on Wednesday.
The investment pause is the most dramatic action yet by a telecommunications or cable company after Obama on Monday urged the Federal Communications Commission to regulate Internet service providers more like public utilities.
At the same time, AT&T had been spending heavily acquisitions and had cut its capital spending estimate for 2015.
Companies and industry groups have already protested Obama's proposal, saying it would stifle growth and investment.
"We can't go out and invest that kind of money deploying fiber to 100 cities not knowing under what rules those investments will be governed," Stephenson said at an analyst conference.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014...JC20141112?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews
AT&T to pause fiber spending on net neutrality uncertainty
(Reuters) - AT&T Inc (T.N) will stop investing in new high-speed Internet connections in 100 U.S. cities until regulators decide whether to enact tough "net neutrality" rules proposed by President Obama, Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson said on Wednesday.
The investment pause is the most dramatic action yet by a telecommunications or cable company after Obama on Monday urged the Federal Communications Commission to regulate Internet service providers more like public utilities.
At the same time, AT&T had been spending heavily acquisitions and had cut its capital spending estimate for 2015.
Companies and industry groups have already protested Obama's proposal, saying it would stifle growth and investment.
"We can't go out and invest that kind of money deploying fiber to 100 cities not knowing under what rules those investments will be governed," Stephenson said at an analyst conference.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014...JC20141112?feedType=RSS&feedName=internetNews
http://www.forbes.com/sites/frankmi...tack-on-free-speech-so-why-is-comcast-for-it/
Net neutrality is an idea that would give the FCC oversight of every Internet service provider in the country. Government could next expand because each Internet service provider needs clarification when applying new net neutrality regulations. Innovation, naturally would be diminished in such a new regulatory regime, as some of the Internet service providers’ funds would have to go to hiring people to deal with the FCC, as well as to complying with regulations and lobbying for better regulations. Since the late 1990s private companies have spent hundreds of billions of dollars developing America’s Internet. This money could dry up if the companies can’t make profits from their investments.
Looks like there's a problem in paradise.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...g-with-obama-over-the-future-of-the-internet/
Obama’s call for an open Internet puts him at odds with regulators
Hours after President Obama called for the Federal Communications Commission to pass tougher regulations on high-speed Internet providers, the agency’s Democratic chairman told a group of business executives that he was moving in a different direction.
Huddled in an FCC conference room Monday with officials from major Web companies, including Google, Yahoo and Etsy, agency Chairman Tom Wheeler said he has preferred a more nuanced solution. That approach would deliver some of what Obama wants but also would address the concerns of the companies that provide Internet access to millions of Americans, such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable and AT&T.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs...g-with-obama-over-the-future-of-the-internet/
Obama’s call for an open Internet puts him at odds with regulators
Hours after President Obama called for the Federal Communications Commission to pass tougher regulations on high-speed Internet providers, the agency’s Democratic chairman told a group of business executives that he was moving in a different direction.
Huddled in an FCC conference room Monday with officials from major Web companies, including Google, Yahoo and Etsy, agency Chairman Tom Wheeler said he has preferred a more nuanced solution. That approach would deliver some of what Obama wants but also would address the concerns of the companies that provide Internet access to millions of Americans, such as Comcast, Time Warner Cable and AT&T.
Yes, I read that article over lunch. Interesting that one of Obama's motivation for net neutrality is to pick a deliberate fight with the GOP over it in order to score points with "young, progressive techies".
He's desperate for some kind of win after being trounced in the election.
He is so shallow.