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As Big As Net Neutrality? FCC Kills State-Imposed Internet Monopolies
tedlistens writes: On Thursday, before it voted in favor of "net neutrality," the Federal Communications Commission voted 3-2 to override state laws in Tennessee and North Carolina that have barred local governments and public utilities from offering broadband outside the areas where they have traditionally sold electricity. Christopher Mitchell of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance said the move was as important for internet competition as net neutrality: "Preventing big Internet Service Providers from unfairly discriminating against content online is a victory, but allowing communities to be the owners and stewards of their own broadband networks is a watershed moment that will serve as a check against the worst abuses of the cable monopoly for decades to come." The laws, like those in over a dozen other states, are often created under pressure from large private Internet providers like Comcast and Verizon, who consequently control monopolies or duopolies over high-speed internet in these places.
Good on you FCC!
when we all found out who was taking over the FCC, I was terrified. Former cable lobbyist, now in charge of the group intended to regulate the same people. But it really looks like wheeler may be the right man for the job
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
who the fuck cares?
Myth: Anyone gives a damn about factually dubious rants.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
The irony of your post vs your sig is delicious. Meanwhile, I can't help wondering how long it will take some future Republican administration to unroll this, so the big ISPs can go back to rent-seeking.
Speaking of roads and public schools...
The biggest wastes of money when it comes to roads and public schools is the enrichment of private entities who have found a way to get themselves access to the public purse.
Same with the corrections industry.
I can't help wondering how long it will take some future Republican administration to unroll this, so the big ISPs can go back to rent-seeking.
That is unlikely. There is rarely a ground swell of support for anti-monopoly actions, such as NN and this ban on bans, because the public is not aware of how much they are harmed by rigged markets. But once the monopoly is broken, people will be much more opposed to reinstating it.
One sentence: Now you actually have a chance to have a decent internet service without massively overpaying for it in US.
It's going to be interesting to see how quickly municipal internet in US can actually challenge incumbent monopolies and force them to compete on quality and price.
The net neutrality vote gets a lot more attention, but this is even more important IMHO. Net neutrality wouldn't even need to be enforced by the FCC if there were sufficient competiton.
Not really. I'm from a socialist country, and on of the key aspects to our prosperity and competitiveness is enabling private entities to get to compete for and win profitable infrastructure contracts.
This is because private contractors bring significant amount of expertise and capability that government would have to build from ground up without them, as well as force costs down through competition. Problems only arise when said private contractors become big and powerful enough to corrupt those making decisions behind these projects to favour them in various ways.
It's another one of those "capitalism works really well as long as it is properly managed and doesn't get big enough to corrupt powerful entities" moments.
Nah. Lots of corporate campaign contributions, a few Federal lawsuits, and then there'll be a lot of sound bites about "getting the government off our backs" and "deregulation" and "states rights" and hey presto! we'll be back to monopolistic rent-seeking before you know it.
That was before Title II. Now they actually have the authority.
If access to the World Wide Web and Internet doesn't qualify as interstate commerce then nothing does.
FedEx et al would undercut the prices and only take the bigger cities where it costs less on average to post a letter. USPS cannot refuse to take a letter for the same price from Podunk to Notown all the way across the country. So if the private industry want to play, they'd need to be forced to offer a universal postal service just like USPS. Which would be decried by you and the one you quoted as "bad government regulation interfering with private industry!". But without that, either
a) you have no postal service in smaller towns (no demand on USPS to offer a service)
or
b) no genuine market rate for delivery, since it won't include costs of universal postal service amortization.
the first is unfair on the people, the second is not proving that private industry has any ability to offer a cheaper and more efficient service, since they can avoid some of the costs of service when compared to the governmental service, which is unfair on the government. Remember, governments are made of people working there too, you know, just like corporations.
Allowing the FCC to nullify state law sounds pretty damn outrageous. I.E. it has Barack Obama's fingerprints all over it and deserves to go down in flames in the courts. As for allowing towns to set up their own ISP's, I don't see a problem with it as long as the town citizenry gets a vote and they don't go deep into debt and ask to get bailed out by the state later. What towns ought to do though is make it possible for companies to build or improve their networks, something the FCC can't pretend to have any control over.
Actually the FCC is preventing states from nullifying the will of municipalities.
Make no mistake, these laws, no matter what rationales are offered, are only about protecting outfits like Comcast and Time Warner Cable from competition, and keeping certain areas reserved for them until they feel like getting around to providing service in them.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.