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Net Neutrality

Smurf

Tool-Bearing Hominid
Tool-Bearing Hominid
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Hey guys, just browsing shit lately and seeing all these things about Net Neutrality. I'm not versed at all on the subject so I came to you guys to ask where I could find some accurate points on what it actually is and what it means for the Internet.

Also if you guys want to chime in with what you think, once I've done a little better research I'd love to have a discussion.

Jake.
 

Chase

Chieftan
Staff member
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Jake-

I had a comment on this the other day with my thoughts:

Thoughts on Net Neutrality

tl;dr not much to worry about (there are a few nightmare scenarios, but they're fairly unlikely unless you get people at the big Internet companies who decide they want to blow up their businesses).

The question of "How do we deal with ISPs wanting to place a surcharge on big companies' bandwidth?" is still an issue. The U.S. will need to re-regulate it if ISPs start trying to milk too much money from large Internet companies (and hopefully the FCC chairman would do so promptly if this started to happen. You can rest assured Amazon/Google/Facebook/Twitter will scream bloody murder the instant it starts to if it ever does).

The bigger issue (unaddressed by the prior net neutrality regulations) is "How do we deal with people being kicked off Facebook/Twitter/Google/registrars when these have become pivotal to 21st Century communication?" Which is basically a question of "Do we compel the First Amendment onto companies that have become natural monopolies online?"

Chase
 

Smurf

Tool-Bearing Hominid
Tool-Bearing Hominid
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Interesting.

So companies can't necessarily monitor what goes through their network? Not only that, but can't really stop people from streaming things illegally. So companies that would provide this service would be able to theoretically "enhance" the experience by being able to control who sees what and how fast, I'm assuming they'll provide it at a faster rate.

So how much are companies paying for bandwidth? It can't be that much or they wouldn't be in business. My thought is that the increasing amount of people streaming things and companies like Netflix coming into the mix is driving bandwidth usage up, thus cutting into overall profit. This wasn't as much of a problem when people didn't stream as much and they could give you limited bandwidth and claim it "unlimited data", since they could predetermine how much you would use and just give you that amount.

Now is the reason people are so afraid because they have the ability to monitor and be able to determine how fast you can get to certain sites? Or because they would have to pay more to get the same services as before?

I mean I can see why people would get upset, but if the prices were too high, wouldn't someone just see the demand and create a service that meets that? I would if I knew anything about how to give someone Internet service. Hell, couldn't you do it illegally and undermine the entire system they're trying to put into place? I feel like someone could capitalize on that, but I guess that's my inner capitalist coming out.

To be fair though, people committed to Facebook and other social media most likely would be pissed. Not just people that are addicted, but people who use them as a free marketing tool would then have to pay for something that previously wasn't costing them anything. I'd be pretty pissed.

Not only that, but how would WiFi work after that? Depending on the coffee shop you go to, could you get a way shittier connection to certain sites depending on how much the coffee shop is willing to pay for Internet? I know goddamn well people stream the fuck out of things illegally off of free WiFi. Its frowned upon but happens. But if its a local business that makes okay money compared to someone like Starbucks, will they have garbage WiFi capabilities thanks to this?

I'm doing research currently, the questions are more general discussion than me expecting you or the other guys on the site to know the answer.

Thank you Chase, lots of fear mongering goes on in the media today and I can't help but get caught up in it sometimes. Always gotta do your own research and thinking.

Jake.
 

RustinKohle

Space Monkey
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Sep 10, 2014
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69
Even if it ends up not being a nightmare scenario, only the large ISPs benefit from a killing of net neutrality, personally id rather scream bloody murder than let big corporations milk us more than they already do for something that is now close to a necessity. If only we could have fiber optic
 

Smurf

Tool-Bearing Hominid
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RustinKohle said:
Even if it ends up not being a nightmare scenario, only the large ISPs benefit from a killing of net neutrality, personally id rather scream bloody murder than let big corporations milk us more than they already do for something that is now close to a necessity. If only we could have fiber optic

Are there smaller ISP's that exist right now? If not, if big corp. Did start milking us, I feel that any driven, smart individual ISP's could capitalize on it and create a service for a fair price and put their name on the map in the process. I'm kinda' shooting in the dark here, but I guess we'll see how it plays out. Worse comes to worse I have to interact with people in person *shudders* haha.
 
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RustinKohle

Space Monkey
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Sep 10, 2014
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The bigger providers have deals eith alot of cities/states where it prevents smaller ISPs from forming.
 
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