Under the prior commissions, the FCC tried to interject itself to enforce Internet “fairness” under the banner of “Net Neutrality”<\/p>\n
The FCC has no jurisdiction over broadband Internet providers (other than those who need licensed spectrum). A Federal Appeals Court reaffirmed that the FCC cannot just make up rules because companies might refuse to provide unlimited bandwidth capacity for free.<\/p>\n
As the way people are using the Internet and watching video is changing, what this means is that cable TV potentially has a conflict of interest in being your broadband Internet provider and also selling video on demand content. They could slow down or block services like Netflix, or force them to install local servers at the cable company to decrease the stress on the backbones.<\/p>\n
During peak times, it is estimated that half of all Internet traffic is Netflix and YouTube and similar services. Streaming audio isn’t remotely a target, at least on wired connections.<\/p>\n
As Charter Cable tries to take over Time Warner, keep all this in mind. While the judges ruled the FCC has no law permitting them to regulate the Internet, they didn’t say Congress can’t pass one. Time to open the check books, boys. It’s election season coming up.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Under the prior commissions, the FCC tried to interject itself to enforce Internet “fairness” under the banner of “Net Neutrality” The FCC has no jurisdiction over broadband Internet providers (other than those who need licensed spectrum). A Federal Appeals Court … Continue reading