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So Long Net Neutrality; It was nice knowing you
Snowcone
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has turned thumbs down on net neutrality.
In a report on broadband availability and connectivity, the FTC found little reason to protect consumers and content providers from attempts by large telecommunications providers to charge more for faster delivery.
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2007/06/ftc_net.html
Sometimes I wonder about organizations like the FTC. Whose interests are they really looking out for? Do they honestly think the telcos, whom have been broken up for monopolistic practices in the past, will behave when given a free ticket to gouge content providers AND customers at the same time? It's almost like the FTC is so jaded that they honestly think this is a smart decision.
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I remember trying to fight this months ago. Calling local senators, hordes of e-mails, etc. Really breaks my intarwebs heart knowing now I won't be paying for service, rather I'll be paying for service, content, AND extra content!!!11
In the future, if I have to pay extra for "channels" on the internet as I do for cable now, it's a very sad time. Free information is on it's last breath.
Net neutrality is what would prevent the AT&Ts of the world from saying to content providers "Pay us $500,000/month and we'll prioritize your traffic". Net Neutrality is good.... this ruling is bad.
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...and then I remember that most of my internets come from You Guise.
And then I weep for us all.
I thought so.
Wasn't Canada starting to debate the same thing?
Basically, service providers want to offer streaming HDTV that, unlike when youtube is slow, you don't have to click pause and wait for the thing to load before you can watch it. There's no way to do that without offering a "better" service, where the traffic from those sites is given a guaranteed transfer rate. Existing connections and connection speeds are not going to change, nobody is going to block your access to google, etc. There are laws in place to prevent that, regardless of how crazy AT&T's CEO is.
Personally I think streaming HDTV is a pretty dumb idea so I'm not going to pay for it, and I'm perfectly happy with the way the internet is structured now, but I think a lot of people are misguided about what net neutrality is and how it bears on the future of the internet. It's not all doom and gloom.
Not yet anyway. I am sure the telcos will find a way to use the lack of neutrality to bend us all over.
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... but I can already get streaming HDTV.... from my ISP.... which is my cable provider... from HD cable TV... which I have to pay extra for........
As in... there's nothing in place now to absolutely ensure it.
Meaning that nothing is changing from how it's been the last few years.
...
DAMN THE FTC.
o_O
The point is to offer it to regular (non-cable) internet users as well...and they'll have to pay extra for it if they want it.
The point is that it's not going to affect your access to penny arcade or google or anything like that.
http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2006/corp_031506b.html
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Right, but at the same time we don't want a repeat of the American domestic auto industry's situation, where it's becomes more and more obvious that they just can't compete because they moved too slowly too late in the game.
We aren't lagging behind now? Doesn't the US consider anything above 512kbits to be high speed?
Well keep in mind you'll see a lot of new service providers opening up, as well as new networks being formed simply through wireless. That could make data service providers a moot point. Imagine WiMax just destroying Comcast's hold on the network. Or better yet, any cell phone company once the spectrum gets deregulated -- or at least rearranged with the death of analog broadcast tv.
Wii Code: 1040-1320-0724-3613 :!!:
That's why I said more than we do. Someone posted the speeds and prices we get compared to other places.
I could be wrong, but I don't think MMOs use nearly as much bandwidth as a game like Halo 3 might.
But there's nothing stopping them from doing that now (and, in fact, some places DO let you do that!). And there's nothing stopping them from deciding to segregate traffic and say:
"if you want to use ports associated with HTTP you have to pay $20/mo. If you want to use ports associated with FTP you can pay an extra $15/mo. If you want to use ports associated with WoW, you can pay an extra $30/mo, since that uses a lot of bandwidth..." Even though it's all the same kind of information.
Also, part of why the FTC slapped it down is -because- the trend at the moment is more competition in the ISP field, not less. ISPs sure as hell are not going to want to sacrifice valuable customers and their reputation simply for some pittance from company X.
Bandwidth doesn't come out of nowhere. This is only enabling them to screw us over more.
I see the same shaky ground that Comcast and Verizon are walking, and they have to be careful or they'll cave in as well. So yeah, I'm not too concerned with the neutrality of the Internet.
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The most recent telecom act was passed intending to be good for 10 years. There will be more infrastructure and more bandwidth available as time goes on. It's not a decision that's meant to change things overnight.
Nothing other than the laws that say they can't do that, you mean, right?
Seconded.
8-meeellion!
I don't play WoW, but it could be a problem for smaller MMO's like DAoC and such that still have a good amount of players, but not really as much as say in their hayday. I also do wonder if this would affect an MMO's lifetime.
"Hey guys, sorry, we know you like our game, but it has been out for nearly 10years. Yes yes, we know 20,000 of you still play very regularly but we only get X-amount of bandwidth and would rather it go towards our next big MMO!
Too many "you", "we" and "they" that don't actually refer to existing people or groups.
Am I crazy or is this plausible?
Pretty much the former.
Without even taking into account that the ruling on net neutrality is "keep on doing what you've been doing."