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ejain
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PostThu Feb 26, 2015 1:29 pm 
Good news: Looks like NWHikers won't have to cough up any money to have access to Comcast's or CenturyLink's customers, and we won't have to purchase an "Outdoor Triple Play" package in order to access NWHikers :-) http://www.geekwire.com/2015/fcc-passes-new-net-neutrality-rules-in-party-line-vote/

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MtnGoat
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PostThu Feb 26, 2015 1:50 pm 
Yeah, this way we can spend that extra money on taxation arising from regulating the formerly most dynamic market in history like a phone company based on 80 year old ideas of what serves the regulators goals best. At least we're prevented from the horrors of paying more to get faster data, so folks downloading massive amounts of data are subsidized by those who don't. Now wise overlords can apply their judgement of change and new ideas using the methods and goals of an institution which was continually behind the curve to start with. Congratulations on ossifying innovation. Now change can occur at the speed of Federal Govt! The worst idea based upon most specious and backwards arguments in recent memory. Its so good they refused to release the 300 pages of regulations before passing them. That should tell you all you need to know right there.

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers
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ejain
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PostThu Feb 26, 2015 2:10 pm 
MtnGoat wrote:
At least we're prevented from the horrors of paying more to get faster data, so folks downloading massive amounts of data are subsidized by those who don't.
If you want to download (or upload) more data, you can sign up for a more expensive plan. That doesn't change with the new, explicit Net Neutrality rules. What the rules do is prohibit an ISP from screwing with the bandwidth you are paying for, e.g. by blocking or slowing down access to certain sites (that refuse to pay up, or that offer competing services).

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MtnGoat
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PostThu Feb 26, 2015 2:35 pm 
mm hmm. And this couldn't be addressed by changing providers, or starting your own, how? Offloading personal responsibility to someone else because you refuse to accept the drawbacks of your own values is as $hitty as it gets. What the rules do is inject the Federal Govt into what is perfectly addressable within the market by actually acting upon what you claim to value. Rates will go up. Increases in speeds and innovation and change will cease to occur as rapidly. Taxation of services will creep in at all levels, and limits on content and regulation of speech, particularly political speech, will increase. This is how they corral what they lost control of when they didn't expect it. And they get it by promising to fix what wasn't broken, even better. Quote me, and let's see what happens.

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers
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Daryl
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PostThu Feb 26, 2015 2:52 pm 
When does the ISP tax start?

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ejain
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PostThu Feb 26, 2015 4:38 pm 
MtnGoat wrote:
And this couldn't be addressed by changing providers, or starting your own, how?
It could, if there was a competitive market for providers and low barriers to entry. Other countries got that figured out, but there's not much chance of that happening here, because that would require even more government intervention. So while the Net Neutrality rules don't help address the lack of competition among providers, they reduce the ability of providers (as well as large Internet businesses) from exploiting their monopolies and engaging in certain anti-competitive behavior.
MtnGoat wrote:
This is how they corral what they lost control of when they didn't expect it.
If you're a government that wants control over what content people have access to, you'd want providers to put in place infrastructure for throttling and blocking content (and get people used to having their access to certain content restricted)...

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Randito
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PostThu Feb 26, 2015 4:48 pm 
MtnGoat wrote:
And this couldn't be addressed by changing providers,
Yeah cancelling your Comcast service is easy and painless http://theweek.com/speedreads/449918/listen-comcast-rep-berate-customer-trying-cancel-service

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Stefan
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PostThu Feb 26, 2015 5:31 pm 
The internet is still a fledgling little industry. Its starting out. IMO...the public took interest in 1997. So 18 years old. A baby. Mtngoat...Like any other industry, it will be deregulated when it has reached a level of maturity.

Art is an adventure.
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cascadeclimber
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PostThu Feb 26, 2015 5:34 pm 
Anyone arguing against Net Neutrality is either ignorant, has money to be gained from a tiered system, or believes everything the buffoons on Fox News spew (refer to item 1). Imagine a non-neutral national telephone system: Pay extra and your calls work. Don't pay extra and your calls drop, sound like sh##, don't go through, etc. Telemarketers can pay to get their calls through to you. How about, you have to listen to an ad before your call is completed? Or electrical distribution. Or natural gas. Or policing. The ISP system in this country is about as broken as something gets. Our service is spotty outside highly profitable urban areas, it's expensive, customer service is indescribably bad, etc. We already rank behind countries like South Korea, Latvia, and the Czech Republic in average connection speed. And the siren call to "just let the market forces work it out" doesn't work in a market with government issues monopolies, like our telecom industry.

If not now, when?
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NacMacFeegle
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PostThu Feb 26, 2015 6:27 pm 
ditto.gif Well put cascadeclimber! up.gif The importance of net nuetrality cannot be overstated.

Read my hiking related stories and more at http://illuminationsfromtheattic.blogspot.com/
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venom
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PostThu Feb 26, 2015 8:28 pm 
cascadeclimber wrote:
The ISP system in this country is about as broken as something gets. Our service is spotty outside highly profitable urban areas, it's expensive, customer service is indescribably bad, etc.
Blame local regulations protecting local providers. Big Government to the rescue! poop.gif What could possibly go wrong?

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boot up
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boot up
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PostThu Feb 26, 2015 8:41 pm 
The Seattle area is not a good indicator of conditions in general for net access. We have a number of broadband options, 16 Over The Air TV stations and a pretty competitive market. I was just checking out the media/internet access scene in Bend OR. They have three....yes THREE OTA stations available and exactly one option for broadband internet access. Its called Bend Broadband and gets one star rating by virtually everyone, with remarks saying it makes Comcast look wonderful. They have low limits for their different data options, and throttle down to what seems about 9600 Baud once you are over your limit. Businesses have given up on Bend just because there is NO option that will support business use. But thank gawd, unregulated monopolies will watch out for their customers and right by the public. And furthermore, trickle down theory works great! dizzy.gif

friluftsliv
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mike
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PostThu Feb 26, 2015 8:51 pm 
19th CenturyLink our local monopoly has gotten so bad that our electric utility coop has formed a company to supply broadband services in parallel with the power infrastructure.

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venom
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PostThu Feb 26, 2015 8:52 pm 
boot up wrote:
I was just checking out the media/internet access scene in Bend OR. They have three....yes THREE OTA stations available and exactly one option for broadband internet access. Its called Bend Broadband and gets one star rating by virtually everyone, with remarks saying it makes Comcast look wonderful. They have low limits for their different data options, and throttle down to what seems about 9600 Baud once you are over your limit. Businesses have given up on Bend just because there is NO option that will support business use. But thank gawd, unregulated monopolies will watch out for their customers and right by the public.
For Bend, what's your point? You think that one company, being so unregulated it's causing business to turn away from the area? If that provider is so bad, why wouldn't other companies jump in and do it better? Answer: probably local regulations granting a monopoly to that lame company's cable system. So how is big government regulation going to help Bend? Can't wait for this... lol.gif

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ejain
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PostThu Feb 26, 2015 9:46 pm 
venom wrote:
If that provider is so bad, why wouldn't other companies jump in and do it better?
Because building the infrastructure isn't profitable without generous tax breaks and subsidies, especially outside of major urban areas? As mentioned above, Net Neutrality doesn't fix the lack of competition and poor service, but reduces a provider's ability to abuse their position. This is important, because there is no realistic quick fix for the lack of competition. One thing that can increase competition is municipal broadband. So in another, unrelated ruling the FTC just overrode the prohibition many states have against setting up (or expanding) municipal broadband. There's a lot to grumble about with government, but for once this isn't one of those cases.

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