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Starting Today, Your Internet Company Can Charge You More For Netflix And Facebook

This wasn't a problem before the regulation, and shouldn't be a problem now.

if you are concerned, lobby your congressman. Congress considered legislation regarding this, and chose not to pass it.

$52 million dollars per congressperson spent on lobbying in a year.

I don't think I can come up with $53 million per, so your suggestion is laughable.
 
Ummm... . ok. Unnecessary or burdensome regulations are unnecessary. Yes.

Calling something a red herring doesn't make it one. It was addressed in the legislature -- democrats pushed hard for it. Congress elected not to act.

So the republicans stayed bought.

Not impressed.
 
In almost no areas are ISPs a monopoly. Nearly everyone has a choice between multiple technologies and companies. They have cable, DSL, satellite, cellular, and sometimes wifi, and even dial up still exists. In cellular alone there are 4 companies that cover the entire US.

So maybe a dozen phone calls to agree on what the "floor" will be.
 
Possible, but unlikely.

With the number of competing net companies, it's more likely that prices will eventually continue to drop, like cell phone company prices, to entice customers.

The free market is a powerful thing.

It sounds like you don't know how the mechanics of internet delivery work.

The physical infrastructure is expensive to deploy.

Running new cable lines would cost billions, and existing providers would have strong incentive to lobby against the necessary permits, etc.

Most of our regulations are reactive.

In other words, things are regulated because somebody screwed up so badly they were necessary. Food purity regulations weren't "nannying". Somebody poisoned somebody, probably a bunch of somebody's.

The rivers used to catch on fire, so we got a clean water act. We didn't pass a bunch of clean water regulations because the water was clean.

ISPs were getting up to some shenanigans, so regulations were put in place. And the "shenaniganners" lobbyed against regulating away their shenanigans and Viola! no more regulations!
 
So the republicans stayed bought.

Not impressed.

It's very easy to blame everything on lobbying, isn't it?

In this case, it was a good policy decision, and we have much more pressing issues.
 
It's very easy to blame everything on lobbying, isn't it?

In this case, it was a good policy decision, and we have much more pressing issues.

MAY be a good poilicy decision.

Time will tell if it works out for those without lobbyists.

And they wouldn't be spending $52 million per congressperson if it didn't work.

Just like they wouldn't be spending 10 billion a year on psychological mainpulation if THAT didn't work.

Successful businessfolk don't waste money on tarot card readers and quack nostrums.
 
And, that's my point -- more internet companies are here now so competition will keep the big boys from raising their rates -- at least, that's my prediction.

In many areas, there is only one method of being able to get broadband. Where I am, I can not get DSL, so I have to rely on cable modems. .. and there is only 1 company
 

Because it's metered. We INVENTED the internet here in the USA and when we invented it and rolled it out, it was rolled out as an all-you-can-eat proposition.
So now, in the age of Internet 3.0, with media-rich content, all the positive implications of Moore's Law and a renewed chance for high speed data to be a transformative and positively disruptive force in the modern world, we suddenly are supposed to think that installing toll gates every other mile AND throttling content that big ISP's see as competition is a good idea?

Know who has metered internet? Australia, that's who...and they rate near the BOTTOM in terms of quality of service and customer satisfaction.

No thanks.
 
It will not be terrible. I doubt ISPs will start data caps. However, I think we will have a more homogenized internet and we will be paying substantially more for less. If gaming and pornography have taught us anything about the internet, it is experience matters most to users, so ISPs who disadvantage subscribers directly to obtain more money will face a backlash. I am almost certain though we will see a big telecom monopoly broken up in our lifetime.

Id like to think any attempt to monopolize will drive innovation from competitors and workarounds by consumers.
 
In many areas, there is only one method of being able to get broadband. Where I am, I can not get DSL, so I have to rely on cable modems. .. and there is only 1 company

Depends on how you define broadband. 4g LTE which is widely available and offers up to 50mb/s. This is broadband and there are 4 national companies which offer it. Just because there is typically one company which has run cables to your house, doesnt mean they are monopilizing access. You have options, and they have differing prices and features.
 
Depends on how you define broadband. 4g LTE which is widely available and offers up to 50mb/s. This is broadband and there are 4 national companies which offer it. Just because there is typically one company which has run cables to your house, doesnt mean they are monopilizing access. You have options, and they have differing prices and features.

I am in the boonies. Much of this area has very poor cell phone reception, and the 4G LTE would be horrible, and not be worth while for my connection.
 
That sounds like a violation of FTC laws, which is who now regulates ISPs.

Oh, I'm quite sure the ftc is looking out for the consumer.

And that when businesses collude they make sure to broadcast it far and wide

That's why I said phone call. Face to face private meeting works best. Then you can't get caught unless one party rolls over, and not even then if there are no hard records of the conversation.

Its kind of like refineries going down for "unscheduled maintenance" right before summer travel season every year. Hard to prove unless somebody admits it outright
 
Id like to think any attempt to monopolize will drive innovation from competitors and workarounds by consumers.

Of course. We see it in countries without net neutrality. You may have several Sim cards for your phone or swap Wifi passwords with your neighbors. Then we will see ISPs lobbying for regulations to restrict such work arounds.
 
I am in the boonies. Much of this area has very poor cell phone reception, and the 4G LTE would be horrible, and not be worth while for my connection.

So then move. Its not the govts job to run cables out to wherever you want to live.
 
Oh, I'm quite sure the ftc is looking out for the consumer.

And that when businesses collude they make sure to broadcast it far and wide

That's why I said phone call. Face to face private meeting works best. Then you can't get caught unless one party rolls over, and not even then if there are no hard records of the conversation.

Its kind of like refineries going down for "unscheduled maintenance" right before summer travel season every year. Hard to prove unless somebody admits it outright

Ok well come up with some evidence and sue them. Or just dont buy service.
 
Internet service needs to start being billed like electricity and other utilities.

People would then realize how much data they consume (and have to pay for)
watching HD Netflix videos that, on most hardware, look little different from non-HD or sitting through all those interactive ads on Hulu or YouTube or loading websites bloated with java but looking, and often functioning, no different than their simple HTML versions a few years prior...

And maybe then they'd start demanding accountability from content providers to create more bandwidth-concious sites and not pump ten times more data at them than they really have any use for.

And if they did that, ISPs wouldn't have to jack up rates or charge some providers extra fees just to fund basic access to the Internet for everyone else who isn't using it to watch cat videos all day to distract themselves from the fact that they are so pathetic all they do is watch cat videos all day.

If there's a market, I'm sure someone will come in and fill it.
 
Too funny.

Boring is wasting your life away staring at a screen - often watching other people have real fun.

I agree. A personal note...I have three screens, and have the potential for a fourth.
Although I don't get as much work in the last two years as I did in the nearly 35 years past, it is typical to find me working on an editing project, with either DP, Facebook, email or something else on the third screen unless I switch it to something to accommodate what I am working on.

At sixty-one years of age I'm semi-retired now against my will...my eyesight took a downward spiral in the last couple of years, so I can't do professional level cinematography work like I used to, and I'm only editing small stuff these days, at a consumer level more often than not, whereas I used to do tons of corporate, docu, music video, commercial ad spots, even occasional feature grade gigs. My hearing isn't what it used to be either, and that's a liability for anyone in the A-V industry.

I'd like to think I can still perceive the difference between 4K and 2K imagery but I'd only be fooling myself.
I can tell the difference if I'm sitting at my workstation but if I am watching television from a standard distance, NOPE.

And anything above 5kHz in the audio spectrum tends to fall off a bit, and by 8kHz it's damn near gone altogether.
That leaves me in a tough spot when listening to conversations sometimes, because I struggle a bit to hear the consonant sounds. Simply put, I probably need hearing aids at this point in order to avoid saying "Huh?" or "What?" a lot.

What's in the future? Quite possibly some kind of mild classic car restoration project if I'm lucky.
I love classic cars, and we might just be hitting a local classic car show this morning for Father's Day.
 
Doesn't bother me. I don't do Netflix, I do very little with FB...heck, I watch very few YouTube videos.

Maybe others should save their money like I do.

There is something to be said for that. They would be taking back their lives too. LOL.
 
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