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Major ISPs Threaten To Throttle Innovation and Slow Network Upgrades

Posted by Soulskill on from the doubling-down-on-being-jerks dept.

An anonymous reader writes "In a letter released on Tuesday and addressed to the FCC chairman, a group of the U.S.'s top ISPs have warned that if the FCC re-classifies the internet as telecommunications, then innovation would slow or halt and network upgrades would be unaffordable. 'Under Title II, new service offerings, options, and features would be delayed or altogether foregone. Consumers would face less choice, and a less adaptive and responsive Internet. An era of differentiation, innovation, and experimentation would be replaced with a series of 'Government may I?' requests from American entrepreneurs.' They add, 'even the potential threat of Title II had an investment-chilling effect by erasing approximately 10% of some ISPs' market cap.' Ars Technica highlights earlier doomsday predictions by AT&T. The FCC is scheduled to vote May 15 on the chairman's recent proposal encompassing this reclassification option that the ISPs vehemently oppose." Reader Bob9113 adds that a protest is planned for the same day by those who oppose the FCC's plans.

1 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. They're right. by Charliemopps · · Score: 0, Troll

    They're right, it will.

    First, you have to understand what the FCC is proposing.
    There are 2 kinds of ISPs we're talking about here. Telco and Cable. They are TOTALLY different. It may seem the same on your end, but its not.

    Telcos are heavily regulated by the feds.
    Cable is almost completely unregulated.

    Much of the telco regulation is left over from the days when there was no other way to get phone service, and no competition from cable companies. A lot of the rules you'd find ridiculous if you understood everything involved. In some places, abandoned homes are required by law to have a working phone line in them for example. They are not required to have working cable television however.

    What the FCC suggested yesterday was to apply some of these rules to cable companies. Now, not all of them are dumb. So I don't want you to think this is a terrible idea. I've no idea which regulation they want to apply to cable companies. The one thing I do know is it will hurt their business and in turn hurt your service in the short term.

    If you want evidence that it will hurt innovation, just look up what your local phone company charges for service and compare that to your cable company. Then look at each companies max speed. In most areas they charge about the same but your cable company is offering 15 to 50mb/s while your phone company likely caps out at 5mb/sec unless you're in one of the few areas that have fiber.

    But again, I want to be clear, there are upsides to the regulation as well. In the long run it'll likely be better for the industry.