Net Neutrality is going away :(

[leftrightleftrightleft]

New net neutrality rules coming from FCC - Technology & Science - CBC News


A couple problems I have with this:

1) I have not met a single person that supports this plan. No blogs. No comments in newspaper comment sections. The public really dislikes this idea through and through. They want the internet to remain open and neutral. They don't want bandwidth to be monetized. But the public has absolutely no say on this apparently.

2) The monetization of bandwidth doesn't help anyone using the internet. The only people it helps is the internet service providers. It gives them an extra revenue stream. But why should an ISP even be looking at bandwidth? Isn't their job to provide internet? They should not even be monitoring who is using a lot of bandwidth and who is using little. They just hook you into the grid. Just like with land line telephones: the telephone line companies did not monitor if you were talking for 10 hours a day or not at all. And they wouldn't charge you any different whether you talked 10 hours or not at all...they would charge the same to everyone.

3) The internet is global and is not confined to just the USA. But by allowing for the monetization of bandwidth, you give American companies the ability to control internet usage in other countries that did not have anything to do with the FCCs new rules. Who owns the internet? The US doesn't, right?

 

[PreachersWife2004]

I honestly wish I understood this better. For all that I am a tech guru and I use the internet daily, I have not been able to grasp what exactly is happening here.

Anyone care to dumb it down for me?? Please?

 

[Belk]

I honestly wish I understood this better. For all that I am a tech guru and I use the internet daily, I have not been able to grasp what exactly is happening here.

Anyone care to dumb it down for me?? Please?

It allows ISPs to change bandwith for whomever they like. For example I could have a 20 Mb connection but my ISP could limit that so I only get 5Mb on my file sharing application. They could also limit my bandwith from Netflix while boosting my bandwith to Amazon streaming giving them an advantage in competing for my money.

 

[PreachersWife2004]

It allows ISPs to change bandwith for whomever they like. For example I could have a 20 Mb connection but my ISP could limit that so I only get 5Mb on my file sharing application. They could also limit my bandwith from Netflix while boosting my bandwith to Amazon streaming giving them an advantage in competing for my money.

Ah hah...gotcha, that makes a bit more sense. So Amazon could feasibly pay my internet provider to boost their speeds while limiting Netflix, say?

The article spoke lightly on Netflix's deal with Comcast. That's another thing I don't quite understand.

 

[Belk]

Ah hah...gotcha, that makes a bit more sense. So Amazon could feasibly pay my internet provider to boost their speeds while limiting Netflix, say?

Correct.

The article spoke lightly on Netflix's deal with Comcast. That's another thing I don't quite understand.

I did not read the article but if I recall correctly Comcast is part owner in Netflix. Therefor they could legally boost Netflix bandwidth to all their customers while making other streaming sites all but useless.

 

[PreachersWife2004]

Correct.

I did not read the article but if I recall correctly Comcast is part owner in Netflix. Therefor they could legally boost Netflix bandwidth to all their customers while making other streaming sites all but useless.

Interesting. Comcast is part owner of an entity that actively takes consumers away from them? Perhaps it's the internet service they provide that is the butter and not the cable service...

Ultimately we dropped our cable service (first Comcast, then Hickorytech then DirectTV) after using Netflix for a few months. We also signed up for Amazon Prime since we use Amazon so much - pretty much all of our basic TV needs are taken care of for a fraction of the price, and with a few bonuses!

 

[Belk]

Interesting. Comcast is part owner of an entity that actively takes consumers away from them? Perhaps it's the internet service they provide that is the butter and not the cable service...

Ultimately we dropped our cable service (first Comcast, then Hickorytech then DirectTV) after using Netflix for a few months. We also signed up for Amazon Prime since we use Amazon so much - pretty much all of our basic TV needs are taken care of for a fraction of the price, and with a few bonuses!

Pretty much the same for me but I stopped using cable 20 years ago. Was just not worth the money I was paying for it when I live in a major metropolitan area and tend not to watch much TV.

 

[Lost Angel]

Correct.

I did not read the article but if I recall correctly Comcast is part owner in Netflix. Therefor they could legally boost Netflix bandwidth to all their customers while making other streaming sites all but useless.

If I recall, this deal between Netflix and Comcast may be a side issue. Comcast is hosting copies? of Netflix content to stream it faster to Comcast customers.

 

[PreachersWife2004]

If I recall, this deal between Netflix and Comcast may be a side issue. Comcast is hosting copies? of Netflix content to stream it faster to Comcast customers.

Yeah they said in the article it didn't affect the agreement, so...I'm still lost on that one.

Oh well.

 

[trunks2k]

Ah hah...gotcha, that makes a bit more sense. So Amazon could feasibly pay my internet provider to boost their speeds while limiting Netflix, say?

Just to be clear it would more be - everyone gets the same speed by default, but Amazon could pay more to an ISP to get a faster speed. But Netflix may not pay for the extra speed, not that Amazon is paying the ISP to NOT increase Netflix's speed.

With companies like Netflix and Amazon, it's not much of an issue. They can afford to pay more. The problem is with new companies. Right now, the great thing about the internet is that the cost of entry into the market is relatively tiny. It doesn't take all that much to get a service or website operating in a way that can compete with the larger companies.

If the big guys can go ahead and pay for their content to be delivered really fast, then that puts new companies at a big disadvantage. They won't be able to afford the extra cost to get their content delivered at the same speeds as the big guys. That raises the barrier of entry into the market much higher, and the internet thrives on the barrier being low.

Not to mention that it takes incentive away from ISPs to simply deliver better service all around. Why improve the speed of your entire network for all of your customers when you can make way more money by focusing on improving the speed of a small subset of customers?