U.S. appeals court kills net neutrality

Make ISPs into "common carriers," says former FCC commissioner.

-- Tom

 

How net neutrality shenanigans could put the hurt on Netflix.

-- Tom

 

Why you should care about the end of net neutrality.

-- Tom

 

Democrats try to reinstate net neutrality rules struck down by court.

-- Tom

 

The Internet You Know and Love Is in Real Danger.

-- Tom

 

The Net Neutrality Wars Have Begun.

-- Tom

 

Netflix performance on Verizon and Comcast has been dropping for months.

-- Tom

 

Google Fiber also offers speeds that blow away the vast majority of American ISPs and the average tier of service most users pay for. So that would explain a bit of it. I think a lot of people are expecting the government to step in and "save the net", but I'm not sure that is a guarantee. There are a lot of organizations with a lot of pull in the bill-making process, and many of the ones with the most pull don't want Netflix or other companies like it. The ISPs themselves don't privately, and that's one good reason it's nearly impossible to get data plans without caps.

 

ISP lobby has already won limits on public broadband in 20 states.

-- Tom

 

A New Debate on Net Neutrality.

-- Tom

 

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/...ling-will-regulate-net-on-case-by-case-basis/

"The Federal Communications Commission will not appeal a court ruling that overturned the FCC's anti-blocking and anti-discrimination rules, Chairman Tom Wheeler announced today. Instead of trying to reinstate rules that prevented Internet service providers from blocking or disfavoring Web services such as Netflix and YouTube, the Commission will try to regulate anti-competitive behavior on a "case-by-case basis."

They had a chance and, much like the tech companies against all the spying, they blew it.

 

The FCC Chairman has decided to make a half-azzed effort to bring back some sort of "net neutrality" by using the FCC's section 706 authority over information providers rather than do the right thing and reclassify internet companies as common carrier telecommunications companies. While the Chairman has left reclassification on the table this is a sad and feeble attempt showing a lack of political will (or a recognition of the reality of the powerful political forces aligned against true net neutrality.) The FCC Chairman is a former industry lobbyist and was president of the National Cable Television Association (NCTA), and later CEO of the Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association (CTIA).

http://www.multichannel.com/technology/wheeler-use-706-authority-restore-net-neutrality-rules/148387

http://www.fcc.gov/document/statement-fcc-chairman-tom-wheeler-fccs-open-internet-rules

 

Cue The Hyperbole And Hysteria: FCC Outlines Timid, Murky Plan To (Maybe) Defend Net Neutrality.

-- Tom

 

What's Wrong with My Streaming Move?.

-- Tom

 

Internet Tolls And The Case For Strong Net Neutrality.

-- Tom

 

How the internet works, and why it’s impossible to know what makes your Netflix slow.

-- Tom

 

Level 3 Wants To Make Peering a Net Neutrality Issue.

-- Tom

 

AT&T rebuffs Netflix CEO's net neutrality defense.

-- Tom

 

A Net Neutrality Riddle.

-- Tom

 

Europe does what the US won't by agreeing to strong net neutrality law.

-- Tom

 

That's nice but it will inevitably lead to price increases imposed by carriers. They won't be willing to cut their revenue due to end of roaming and thus they will "adjust" (up) fees accordingly.

 

If Verizon and AT&T get their way, what type of internet future do many have?

http://www.androidauthority.com/verizon-att-internet-future-368864/

 

the whole atmosphere of greed surrounding wireless providers and content providers in general is keeping me from jumping to smart phone only... seriously data caps of 2GB in 2014? Can't even find a good way to block ads effectively on android without rooting, and there's no way to block ads at all with windows phone. As of now the screens on the iphone are too small for my taste... I'll stick with cable internet and paying 8 dollars a month with page plus on my droid 2 and not having mobile internet, infested with obnoxious popup ads that get inadvertently clicked all the time. Take my cheap $100 Dell Venue 7 along and just use wi-fi if I need to look something up bad enough. If they made windows phone more like windows for the desktop, that would be a breath of fresh air. Greed greed greed. Everybody wants their piece of the pie and it shows.

They get away with it because humans are social creatures and they know that most of them will suck it up and pay just about whatever can be gotten away with to have their unlimited texting and ability to take pictures and post them right to facebook of their mundane daily activities. Queue AT&T's 61 cent per month 'administrative fee' as an example... which firmly left a sour taste in my mouth when I was asking myself if I really want to go over to smartphone for internet and pay out my butt in taxes every month. Nah.

 

It's easy to blame corporate greed. In this case, the problem began with the users. That greed is one evil preying on another, specifically the desire for instant gratification. In order to get it, users caved to greed. This could should have been stopped when it began, in cells early days. Users made this possible when we agreed to pay by the minute. Users could have said no and told them to keep "pay per minute" cell usage, but they decided that instant gratification was more important. I'm not condoning corporate greed. I'll be the first one to cheer when their corporate headquarters are reduced to piles of rubble. I never jumped on the cell phone bandwagon and have no use whatsoever for a "smart" phone. One can come up with lots of privacy reasons to avoid them, but for me there's one much simpler reason. It'll be a cold day in hell when I buy minutes. When people gave them that inch, they took the next mile. As long as users keep paying per minute or per gigabyte, they have no incentive to offer anything better.