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FCC Explains How Net Neutrality Will Be Protected Without Net Neutrality Rules (arstechnica.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: The Federal Communications Commission is still on track to eliminate net neutrality rules this Thursday, but the commission said today that it has a new plan to protect consumers after the repeal. The FCC and Federal Trade Commission released a draft memorandum of understanding (MOU) describing how the agencies will work together to make sure ISPs keep their net neutrality promises. After the repeal, there won't be any rules preventing ISPs from blocking or throttling Internet traffic. ISPs will also be allowed to charge websites and online services for faster and more reliable network access. In short, ISPs will be free to do whatever they want -- unless they make specific promises to avoid engaging in specific types of anti-competitive or anti-consumer behavior. When companies make promises and break them, the FTC can punish them for deceiving consumers. That's what FCC Chairman Ajit Pai and Acting FTC Chair Maureen Ohlhausen are counting on. "Instead of saddling the Internet with heavy-handed regulations, we will work together to take targeted action against bad actors," Pai said in a joint announcement with the FTC today.
Not really seeing an up side to this nonsense. Am I crazy, like the voices tell me, or am I missing something?
"Have you ever thought about just turning off the TV, sitting down with your kids, and hitting them?"
Better prepare your Internet exit strategies, folks. If the dark prophecies of Walled Gardens comes to pass, that may be the only effective form of protest available to rank-and-file citizenry. Small ISPs seem to have to piggyback on the larger ones' last-mile lines just to exist, so they likely wouldn't be any help, and while talk about creating our own Internet 3.0 is a nice fiction, that's all it is really; it'd take billions of dollars to get it started, thousands of people you could count on, and ISPs somehow not noticing, sueing the daylights out of us all, and/or just buying up any startups in hostile takeovers, the dismantling the whole thing -- assuming that is they don't outright lobby legislators to somehow prevent it. Continuing to pay ISPs who behave badly because "the Internet is essential" is just rewarding them for being evil. After the 2020 elections (if not sooner; Mr. Mueller, I'm looking at you when I say that) we'll likely not have a Republican in the Whitehouse anymore, but it'll take years for all the damage done, this included, to be reversed and repaired, and it's going to be a rough ride for all concerned in the meantime. If we somehow end up with a Republican until at least 2024, there may not be an Internet left to save. If someone else has any bright ideas how to mitigate evil behavior incoming from ISPs (because they will take full advantage of this, believe you me), I'm all ears.
"the invisible hand of the market will take care of everything."
That's a great idea. No longer being common carriers, every local municipality and private landowner whose property their wires pass through should feel free to demand access payment, and cut the lines if they refuse. Fair is fair - free rights of way exist for regulated common carriers serving a public interest, not for unregulated for-profit corporations.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
The system in the UK is a lot better, but also a long way short of perfect.
BT are the monopoly (the government originally built the early phone network, then sold it off) but are heavily regulated. Any other company can lease space in the phone exchanges and street side cabinets and pull their own cable through their ducts.
ISPs then peer with BT at the edges of their network and provide outbound bandwidth.
As a result just at my house I can pick my own bandwidth provider on top of:
24Mbit ADSL to the exchange, BT equipment in the exchange
24MBIt ADSL to the exchange, O2 equipment in the exchange
24MBIt ADSL to the exchange, TalkTalk equipment in the exchange
80Mbit VDSL to the cabinet, BT backhaul to the exchange
1000Mbit Fibre to the exchange by BT
For actual service on those connections I can pay anywhere from about 20GBP for a rubbish service that's just a bundle with voice calling, up to about 50GBP for a business SLA level service, to over 150GBP for the full fibre package
Or there's Virgin cable offering 200Mbit on their own network, pricing mostly determined by choice of TV package.