The FCC has published the rules on Net Neutrality – unless there is a legal challenge, the new rules go into effect in two months.
What Net Neutrality is has been muddled by radio hosts trying to connect it with the Fairness Doctrine. It’s pretty different, although once the camel’s nose is under the tent…
Two examples may help – back about 10 years ago, Skype came out. At least one non-Bell phone company immediately saw the the threat to their revenue stream. Independent (non Bell System) phone companies traditionally have outrageously high rates since the 1996 Act protected them from competition. Skype would allow their customers to get a dialup Internet account and make free ling distance phone calls. They took steps to try to block Skype so it would not work. The FCC immediately took them to court and won – that was sort of where this idea started – government regulation is often the result of poor behavior by companies.
Today, Netflix is probably the best example of where this is headed – Netflix offers streaming movies over the Internet. Most of the high speed Internet providers (cable TV companies and phone companies) derive income from movie rentals and TV products. They complain that the load Netflix puts on their infrastucture is costing them money to upgrade and Netflix should pay the Internet providers if they want special treatment.
Net Neutrality would make that improper. The FCC’s concept is the Internet customers are paying the Cable/Phone company for the service and they are just common carriers – packets are packets and it is none of their business what Internet users are doing with the bandwidth.
Look for a few unintended consequences like more aggressive bandwidth caps and over bandwidth fees for heavy users.
To some degree, technology is already making this issue go away. The core routers – the bug pipes that connect the Internet are getting extremely fast and cheap. It isn’t “too cheap to measure”, but it’s getting close
I just re-signed up for Netflix recently since I had to buy a new TV, and my new TV and blueray both have a “smart hub” meaning I have a bundle of services that I can sign in too, :ie Netflix, Facebook and even check my email on Yahoo,, I pay an average of $170 a month for TV,internet , and ph , in a bundle on ATT U-verse and a 8.99 a month for Netfiix streaming movies, So where is anyone losing money ? not ATT or Netflix thats for sure, And the government “took “the analog bandwith away from us, and left us with feces eating digital.. just because they could not allow to have the public something better than digital.
I guess I’m one of the people that cable companies hates. I internet through via cable modem but that’s it. I simply can not afford 100+ dollars a month for the 2-3 channels that I would probably DVR and then maybe never watch anyhow.
So, I have Netflix and Hulu and that’s it and I’m very happy with it. That means however that I’m one of those people using high bandwidth. In addition, I also have a Wii and Roku in my kids rooms when they visit so they can also watch Netflix and Hulu. In the past I’ve also played some online gaming and I do a fair amount of surfing. Does that mean I should get charged more, I’m sorry but I don’t think so.
The little old lady down the street who has the same internet I do can use it just as much as I do but she chooses not to. If people want to pay less and don’t use it as much then why not offer different packages. The companies around my parts anyhow only offer one package and that is unlimited. So they offer unlimited service and then get upset when their customers actually use as much as they want.
As the article says, sounds like poor business to me. They want the best of both worlds, they want to sell unlimited and also charge you extra for unlimited and apparently are now getting the government to help them do it. I hope someone challenges this but honestly few understand the issue or pay much attention to it.
I wish I could get the cable or phone companies to provide internet service to my home so that I could actually have an opportunity to decide whether I hate them. I’m one mile away from where the cable ends and it’s been that way for 11 years now with no infrastructure improvements despite all the taxes I’ve paid for the last 15 years to “bring broadband to the people”. Same deal with the phone company’s DSL network- no infrastructure expansions since the 90’s. So I spend about $200 per month with wireless cards and satellite to get enough bandwidth to do my engineering work.