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Burger King Makes the Case For Net Neutrality (variety.com)

An anonymous reader writes: By now you've probably seen Burger King's spoof ad on the decision by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to repeal net neutrality. In the ad, Burger King customers are informed that there are now three "lanes" for ordering Whoppers -- each with substantially different prices and waiting times. The ad has already generated over a million views on Youtube and is lighting up Twitter. One thing I missed the first time is that while the Burger King "counter service" is clearly in on the act, the customers are apparently real; they learn of the cockamamie scheme at the counter in the style of the old TV show Candid Camera. Variety notes that the video "ends with an apparent dig at FCC Chairman Ajit Pai [...] as the Burger King character is shown drinking from an oversized Reese's coffee mug. That is the type of coffee mug that Pai uses at FCC meetings."

246 comments

  1. Not a good comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Burger King is selling an actual physical product, and one you could walk across the street and just as easily buy from Whataburger. The ISP's are generally a monopoly and it's either their way or nothing. And they are not selling a physical item that someone must fix for you, they are selling virtual bandwidth on a pipe that is already there. #SENDTHEMTOJAIL

    1. Re:Not a good comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      *High fives fellow Texan*
      Now I want a patty melt.

    2. Re: Not a good comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Not really. The Whoppers were already made. They are selling the service of delivering the Whopper. Just like net neutrality. There service of delivering the product is also a monopoly.

    3. Re:Not a good comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      You're wrong. Burger King's analogy is that they'll let you pay more for faster priority access to their product. To accomplish this, they will artificially slow down access to those that are unwilling to pay the ridiculous premium. Those customers that were waiting forever for their burgers weren't waiting because there were many customers that pay the premium, they were waiting just because the premium option existed and they didn't pony up. That's the entire point of their analogy and is perfectly valid.

    4. Re:Not a good comparison by omnichad · · Score: 2

      That's more to do with ability for competitors to set up business. Much like a gas pipeline, you can't have 5 alternatives in town for Internet without some kind of compromise.

      they are selling virtual bandwidth on a pipe that is already there.

      That's sort of covered by the ad. The burgers were already ready, but they wanted to charge extra to deliver it sooner.

    5. Re:Not a good comparison by houghi · · Score: 1

      That is what comparing things is. They will never be identical, just similar. It is as if you where saying that two shades of red can not be compared, because their Pantone number is not identical.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    6. Re:Not a good comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If there could be a township run local Central Office that does fiber optic last mile, allowing any ISP to connect to any house, there absolutely can be 5, 10, 100 competitiors offering internet.

      The problem is having a monopoly own last mile.

    7. Re:Not a good comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My back-woods town has four ISP alternatives without any compromises. DSL, cable, and two separate local wireless Internet providers with very reasonable installation and monthly prices.

    8. Re:Not a good comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      let you pay more for faster priority access to their product. To accomplish this, they will artificially slow down access to those that are unwilling to pay the ridiculous premium

      Sounds just like Amazon Prime. It's the reason I started buying my stuff from walmart.com instead.

    9. Re:Not a good comparison by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

      Same. Whataburger makes some of the best fast food burgers in the market. They make a good breakfast too.

    10. Re:Not a good comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Burger King is selling an actual physical product, and one you could walk across the street and just as easily buy from Whataburger. The ISP's are generally a monopoly and it's either their way or nothing. And they are not selling a physical item that someone must fix for you, they are selling virtual bandwidth on a pipe that is already there. #SENDTHEMTOJAIL

      So, what? Make up your own analogy, but please do it with cars.

    11. Re:Not a good comparison by sjames · · Score: 1

      Much like if there was actual competition for ISPs, net neutrality would enforce itself in the market.

    12. Re:Not a good comparison by HiThere · · Score: 1

      So you switched from a bad company to a horrible one. Smooth move.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    13. Re:Not a good comparison by HiThere · · Score: 1

      Various towns trying that have found state laws getting passed forbidding them from doing so.

      I'll agree that the physical plant in the "last mile" is a natural monopoly. But the companies that might want to eventually move into that natural monopoly don't want anyone they can't drive out of business to run it.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    14. Re: Not a good comparison by tattood · · Score: 1

      Not really. The Whoppers were already made. They are selling the service of delivering the Whopper. Just like net neutrality. There service of delivering the product is also a monopoly.

      The more accurate analogy would be ordering Burger King from GrubHub. You already paid BurgerKing for the food, and you paid GrubHub to deliver the food, but in order to get your food while it is still hot, Burger King would need to pay GrubHub to have the driver deliver their food to their customers before they deliver food from other restaurants.

      --
      WTB [sig], PST!!!
    15. Re:Not a good comparison by webnut77 · · Score: 1

      Sounds just like Amazon Prime. It's the reason I started buying my stuff from walmart.com instead.

      Walmart...making America deplorable since 1962.

      I ordered from Walmart yesterday. My order was more that $35 so I get free shipping. On the checkout page, I could select 'Free Shipping' or 'Store Pickup save $7.09'.

      So how is this free shipping?

      Also, Walmart advertises two prices for some of their items. An "In-store price" and a "Online price" which is about 15% higher. How is that "free shipping"?

    16. Re:Not a good comparison by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      You're wrong. Burger King's analogy is that they'll let you pay more for faster priority access to their product. To accomplish this, they will artificially slow down access to those that are unwilling to pay the ridiculous premium. Those customers that were waiting forever for their burgers weren't waiting because there were many customers that pay the premium, they were waiting just because the premium option existed and they didn't pony up. That's the entire point of their analogy and is perfectly valid.

      Which is fine. I'll simply go next door to Chick-Fil-A or McDonalds. They're better anyhow.

      Yes, McDonalds isn't bad... been there lately? It's not the old McDonalds. It's still a cut throat business, however if you want something very fast, it's not bad.

    17. Re:Not a good comparison by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      walmart.com sells the same things at the same prices with a more convenient return policy and they don't sit on my orders until the last minute or constantly nag me about paying the Prime tax.

      It's a FAR better shopping experience than Amazon.

  2. Not quite the best parallel by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Because it's (probably) not the consumer that pays (directly) for the preferred treatment. But in the end that's who will foot the bill, so...

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    1. Re:Not quite the best parallel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, I agree it's a bad analogy. I think a better one would be a grocery store where each checkout line is a different speed and price, faster lines charging more, and the brand of the item you choose depends on which line you are allowed to queue up in. If you have a non-preferred brand of cereal, Kellogs and Post for example, you must join the slower lane. Oh, but you can pay extra to take the non-preferred brand into the express lane, which already includes preferred brands of General Mills who payed extra to be included in that lane by default.

    2. Re:Not quite the best parallel by Eloking · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah, I agree it's a bad analogy. I think a better one would be a grocery store where each checkout line is a different speed and price, faster lines charging more, and the brand of the item you choose depends on which line you are allowed to queue up in. If you have a non-preferred brand of cereal, Kellogs and Post for example, you must join the slower lane. Oh, but you can pay extra to take the non-preferred brand into the express lane, which already includes preferred brands of General Mills who payed extra to be included in that lane by default.

      I agree the analogy isn't perfect but, well, it's an analogy do it "can't" be perfect.

      Personally, I found the video both funny and entertaining. And, more importantly, it reached a lot of ordinary people and tell them that killing net neutrality is a bad thing. And that worth more than the best analogy we could come with.

      --
      Elok
    3. Re:Not quite the best parallel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And, more importantly, it reached a lot of ordinary people and tell them that killing net neutrality is a bad thing. And that worth more than the best analogy we could come with.

      Did it? I mean, I've heard about the video, but I haven't bothered watching it, because it's a Burger King commercial and I don't care.

      Plus, even if it did, so what? Had they released this before the FCC vote, it might have mattered. Granted it still wouldn't have, but it might have. But the FCC vote is over. Net neutrality is dead. It's never coming back. (If you think the Democrats will vote for it once they're back in power, remember that Tom Wheeler was picked because he was a cable industry lobbyist. He was not supposed to put ISPs under Title II, he was picked explicitly for regulatory capture purposes.)

      So what's the point to doing the video now?

      Well, to sell shitty hamburgers, of course, under the guise of "informing the public." Who aren't informed and largely don't care about the boring details of net neutrality.

    4. Re:Not quite the best parallel by Eloking · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Did it? I mean, I've heard about the video, but I haven't bothered watching it, because it's a Burger King commercial and I don't care.

      You're on Slashdot so I'm pretty sure you're aware about the importance of Net Neutrality. So it doesn't matter if "you" saw the video or not

      As for the video, it was released 2 days ago and it already have +2.5 M views so I think we can agree it reached a "lot" of ordinary people that doesn't have a clue about what Net Neutrality mean : https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Plus, even if it did, so what? Had they released this before the FCC vote, it might have mattered. Granted it still wouldn't have, but it might have. But the FCC vote is over. Net neutrality is dead. It's never coming back.

      Is it? I live in Canada and, as far as I know, it's pretty much alive here. USA Rest of the World

      And I wouldn't be so sure that democrat won't cancel this. I got the feeling that the next democrat president will take a linking to destroy everything that Trump made.

      So what's the point to doing the video now?

      Well, to sell shitty hamburgers, of course, under the guise of "informing the public." Who aren't informed and largely don't care about the boring details of net neutrality.

      Unless you want the Net Neutrality to stay dead, why would you bother that Burger King spend its own money to teach people about it? Of course it's a publicity stunt, but they could have instead created 4 different flavor of Whopper : https://www.gq.com/story/new-d...

      --
      Elok
    5. Re:Not quite the best parallel by Eloking · · Score: 1

      Is it? I live in Canada and, as far as I know, it's pretty much alive here. USA Rest of the World

      I meant : USA (Insert "Isn't Equal" character here) Rest of the World.

      I could add the character while writting, but it disapeared when click the "Submit" button

      --
      Elok
    6. Re:Not quite the best parallel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One thing the video doesn't cover is people abandoning Burger King and going to McDonalds, Wendy's, Whataburger, In-N-Out, Jack In the Box, Burger Street, Steak-N-Shake where this isn't done. Or any number of mom-and-pop burger places going up that will provide a reasonable order-to-delivery model for burgers that people like.

      Of course, this model is based on Burger King having a complete monopoly on the Whopper itself. But Comcast doesn't own or control Netflix, Hulu, Google, etc. So in this "analogy", is really more like Uber Eats, where Uber Eats would charge more to deliver a Whopper than a Big Mac. They are a deliver service, not a content provider. So like Google Fiber, Burger King would start it's own delivery service that would deliver Whoppers or Big Macs at the same or lower price - and drive Uber Eats out of business or force them to charge the same price.

      Never underestimate the power of the people and the drive of competition.

    7. Re:Not quite the best parallel by Eloking · · Score: 1

      One thing the video doesn't cover is people abandoning Burger King and going to McDonalds, Wendy's, Whataburger, In-N-Out, Jack In the Box, Burger Street, Steak-N-Shake where this isn't done. Or any number of mom-and-pop burger places going up that will provide a reasonable order-to-delivery model for burgers that people like.

      Of course, this model is based on Burger King having a complete monopoly on the Whopper itself. But Comcast doesn't own or control Netflix, Hulu, Google, etc. So in this "analogy", is really more like Uber Eats, where Uber Eats would charge more to deliver a Whopper than a Big Mac. They are a deliver service, not a content provider. So like Google Fiber, Burger King would start it's own delivery service that would deliver Whoppers or Big Macs at the same or lower price - and drive Uber Eats out of business or force them to charge the same price.

      Never underestimate the power of the people and the drive of competition.

      And your point is?

      I think that you focus too much on "It won't help peoples to undersand what Net Neutrality is".

      The way I see it, it doesn't matter (much?) that people undertands the details of Net Neutrality. The only thing they need to know is that Net Neutrality is a bad thing and that video is pretty efficient at it.

      --
      Elok
    8. Re:Not quite the best parallel by sjames · · Score: 1

      Two states have already reinstated net neutrality within their jurisdictions and there's a bill in congress to reinstate it federally. This is a good time to apply a bit of political pressure.

    9. Re:Not quite the best parallel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Supremacy Clause.

      The states can't regulate net neutrality. The FCC rules already state that.

      Trump will veto any attempt by Congress to "reregulate the Internet" so that's also already dead.

      It's dead. The only reason Democrats are even trying is because they know it's futile. If anything, they're even more in the pocket of the giant media corporations than Republicans.

    10. Re:Not quite the best parallel by sjames · · Score: 1

      Actually, in both states they made compliance "optional" IFF the ISP chooses never to do business with the state government. FCC or no, state governments don't HAVE to award contracts if they don't want to as long as the criteria are articulated and don't include race, religion, etc.

    11. Re:Not quite the best parallel by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You're on Slashdot so I'm pretty sure you're aware about the importance of Net Neutrality.

      With that, you invite a round of 'whataboutism'. You - as a Burger King eating American, eg - are far more likely to be denied access to a website because your ass is thrown in jail in our war on drugs/hacking/sex/data/medicine/pirating/everything.

      10X more likely in the USA versus many civilized countries. I would much rather risk an ISP dicking with me an have Scandanavian levels of incarceration. MUCH, MUCH, MUCH, MUCH, MUCH prefer that. If nothing else, I can move to where the signal/cable/access is. When you're in prison, you're ... not getting so much access.

      Anyway, this is a culture war issue that exists in extreme disproportion to its effects especially if those effects include prisoners denied internet access.

      So I tune out most of the NN/back-n-forth/red-v-blue. It is a distraction issue which is why you here so much of it like your sister getting an abortion or your cousin's gay marriage. Oh? That's not you? Didn't think so, it never was.

  3. Nothing to do with net neutrality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    As many have pointed out their stunt is not depicting net neutrality but simply standard tiers of Internet service. Net neutrality would be more like if Burger King accepted payment from Pepsi to hamper (or block) Coca-Cola sales. And obviously Burger King would never do something that since they are signaling the proper non-discriminatory virtues. Oh, but wait, that is exactly what they do entering into exclusive drink supplier contracts. Can BK spell hippocritical?

    1. Re:Nothing to do with net neutrality by TheCycoONE · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not exactly, but they do confuse the issue. If you notice, only the Wopper is being delayed, and it's being delayed despite being able to be served faster. Other sandwiches like Chicken (as pointed out in the ad) do not require waiting in the slow line.

      If we assume Woppers are a substitute for torrents then the net neutrality parallel is obvious - unfortunately the target audience for the commercial won't make the connection.

    2. Re:Nothing to do with net neutrality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I understand where you are coming from, but it's not like BK gives you the choice on their beef supplier. They choose one supplier to parter with, not two. It's Coke and Pepsi that do the stupid lockout agreements, not BK.

      But ignoring that, yeah, BK isn't the best business to be making argument for or against anything like NN. Their analogy is terrible.

    3. Re:Nothing to do with net neutrality by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Well, hopefully they'll make the connection that they can't get what they want unless they pay through the nose. That would be good enough.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    4. Re:Nothing to do with net neutrality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Can BK spell hippocritical?

      I actually agree with your point, but this is just too good not to point out the... umm... you know.

    5. Re:Nothing to do with net neutrality by tsqr · · Score: 1

      As TheCycoONE points out, they kinda sorta made the point, but weakly. I was a little disappointed that they didn't have something along the lines of this:

      You can only get cheese if you also get mustard and kale. You can scrape those off if you don't want them, but you have to pay for them; they're part of the bundle. If you want ketchup and pickles, you have to buy an apple pie. And fries are only available if you add the chicken sandwich package.

    6. Re: Nothing to do with net neutrality by Wovel · · Score: 1

      Sounds like you are arguing against cable tv bundling channels. That is fine, but it is no way remotely connected to net neutrality.

    7. Re: Nothing to do with net neutrality by tsqr · · Score: 1

      Sounds like you are arguing against cable tv bundling channels. That is fine, but it is no way remotely connected to net neutrality.

      You may think it isn't connected, but wait and see. ISPs that are also TV providers (in other words, all of the cable providers) make a lot of money on channel bundling, and they are losing TV customers as cord cutting increases. I'm sure they'd really like the bundling model to extend to internet access.

    8. Re:Nothing to do with net neutrality by Eloking · · Score: 1

      If we assume Woppers are a substitute for torrents then the net neutrality parallel is obvious - unfortunately the target audience for the commercial won't make the connection.

      I don't think it's important that they make the connection about how eaxactly Net Neutrality will affect this but not that.

      Waiting for their Whopper is pissing them off like Net Neutrality will piss them off. It's all that matters.

      --
      Elok
    9. Re: Nothing to do with net neutrality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bundling channels is different than bundling services, the BK ad actually did mention they were hoping to increase sales of chicken and fries, aka bundling services.

    10. Re: Nothing to do with net neutrality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The ad shows very well one of the absolute correct aspects of Net Neutrality.
      If we do not retain Net Neutrality this is exactly what can happen.

    11. Re:Nothing to do with net neutrality by eaglesrule · · Score: 1

      Can BK spell hippocritical?

      Maybe. But apparently you can't.

    12. Re:Nothing to do with net neutrality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If we assume Woppers are a substitute for torrents then the net neutrality parallel is obvious

      Actually, we should assume the Whopper is a substitute for some service like Netflix with the presumption that their other products are equivalent to the TV package included with your cable company. Obviously the problem with that is precisely that people go to BK for the Whopper. It could be argued that people also go to BK for Pepsi (although I think that's more a divided thing), so the GP's point has some merit in that case, but obvious BK is not a service provider but a specific product seller, so analogies break down quickly.

      In any case, I thought the point was made well enough, at least in as far as how dickish net neutrality is and how people wouldn't stand for it at their fast food joint. Because there's competition, people don't have to. With the ISP monopolies most people have (because mobile is pretty ubiquitous but is not a viable alternative to many people) though, yea, we need some regulatory body to either (1) break the monopolies (of which many are natural, so that's somewhat pointless) or (2) institute rules like net neutrality so they're not [as much] dicks.

    13. Re:Nothing to do with net neutrality by bobschneider8 · · Score: 1

      As many have pointed out their stunt is not depicting net neutrality but simply standard tiers of Internet service. Net neutrality would be more like if Burger King accepted payment from Pepsi to hamper (or block) Coca-Cola sales. And obviously Burger King would never do something that since they are signaling the proper non-discriminatory virtues. Oh, but wait, that is exactly what they do entering into exclusive drink supplier contracts. Can BK spell hippocritical?

      Burger King may or may not know how to spell hypocritical, but you can't

    14. Re: Nothing to do with net neutrality by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      I'm sure they'd really like the bundling model to extend to internet access.

      The bundling model already extends to internet access. I don't know of a cable TV company that also sells internet services that does NOT have a discount price for getting both cable TV and internet. And my telephone company has a bundled price for voice and internet services.

    15. Re: Nothing to do with net neutrality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The hippo delicacy?

    16. Re:Nothing to do with net neutrality by mentil · · Score: 1

      Specifically, the 'higher mbps' confuses the issue. That is more of an analogy for paying for a higher bandwidth connection to your ISP, which isn't particularly controversial in principle (although these speeds are kept low/expensive due to oligopoly collusion and oversubscription).

      A better analogy would be "we have a 'deal' with Pepsi to give free refills, but if you want refills of Coke products you have to pay" or "we dilute Coke products to the point of tasting bad, since they didn't 'make a deal' with us not to". However that'd involve the cooperation of Coke and Pepsi in order to pull off this stunt. Net neutrality has to do with how 3rd parties are treated, so it'd have to clearly involve a 3rd party in order to be comparable. They could claim that Whoppers came from 'Whopper Corp.' and that there was a breakdown in negotiations, but would anyone believe that?

      An even better analogy: customers could pay for a 'mbps' service level for all products, and some would notice that certain products are significantly delayed, even for the service level they were paying for. Maybe say the coffee and iced tea are made by crummy 3rd parties that won't pay off Burger King, and so you should just drink the soda instead. Unfortunately most people going to Burger King wouldn't wait for coffee or iced tea and would go elsewhere. People would stop paying extra when they realize it's only those things being delayed, which they can get cheap and fast anywhere.

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
    17. Re:Nothing to do with net neutrality by DiEx-15 · · Score: 1

      Not exactly, but they do confuse the issue. If you notice, only the Wopper is being delayed, and it's being delayed despite being able to be served faster. Other sandwiches like Chicken (as pointed out in the ad) do not require waiting in the slow line.

      If we assume Woppers are a substitute for torrents then the net neutrality parallel is obvious - unfortunately the target audience for the commercial won't make the connection.

      I think you are overthinking and reading way too much into the analogy.

      The ad starts off with saying that they are doing this to Whoppers and focusing on the Whoppers as the metaphor for the internet. Then they show in the background that they are charging ~$7 for their normally free WiFi. At the end they interview the "victims" or people that participated in this stunt and they got the point.

      If people couldn't get the point, then they are either Anti-Net Neutrality zealots or just flaming denser than rocks.

  4. Re: This is why America is so obese by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Would you like another Extra Big Ass Fries?

  5. If you want a Coke with that, we'll superspeed it by Tristao · · Score: 2

    If you're absolutely sure you don't want a Coke, just wait in line a bit longer.
    (insert coke lines jokes below)

  6. And McDonalds does what in this scenario? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If I walked in and saw $26 for a whopper, I'd turn right around and go to the McDonald's, Wendy's, 5-guys, whatever, next door. Who wouldn't vote with their feet in this situation? You say, "we can't because ISPs have monopolies," to which I say, this is a bad analogy then.

    1. Re:And McDonalds does what in this scenario? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      seems more like you don't understand how an analogy works. the set of all hamburger restaurants isn't "the internet" in this case. this single BK restaurant is "the internet", or monopoly gateway to is. in the context of the ad, the whopper is like netflix or something. you can get the chicken sandwich, which is the ISP video, with no delays. but you may have to wait (or get your whopper throughput throttled) if you don't pay for a premium line. the analogy totally works, if you don't attempt to over-analyze it with "that's not really how..." irrelevant reasoning.

    2. Re:And McDonalds does what in this scenario? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 4, Insightful

      But only Burger King has the whopper, which is their point.

      ISPs could throttle your access to Netflix, Hulu and YouTube for example.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    3. Re:And McDonalds does what in this scenario? by h4ck7h3p14n37 · · Score: 1

      I thought the point was that if you pay more you should get better service?

      I haven't watched the video, but I'm guessing it features people who are upset about the situation? I think it would be fantastic if I could skip a long line by paying more if I'm in a hurry.

    4. Re:And McDonalds does what in this scenario? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In the video there's an artificial delay for people who doesn't pay the premium. Even if the burger is ready and no one else is on the line, they are not being served.

      As others said, it's not a perfect analogy, but it's much closer to lack of net neutrality than merely paying more for a better service (which would be QoS, not NN).

    5. Re:And McDonalds does what in this scenario? by Comrade+Ogilvy · · Score: 1

      Not quite. Net neutrality says nothing about overall better service at a premium price. What it is about is the ISPs restricting your traffic that you already paid to have access to, based on schemes that are probably hidden and/or indecipherable to the consumer who has paid the bill.

      Theoretical example with concrete details: Suppose you had Netflix, and you suddenly noticed it was much slower, but other some other quick technical checks you perform show your network speed is okay. You call up your ISP and customer service says it is probably a problem at Netflix's side -- call them up. You file a complaint with Netflix. But what really happened is the ISP is in negotiation with Netflix for an added payment to "ensure" good consumer experience. To make their point, they reconfigured their network to slow down all Netflix traffic. Does that sound hunky dory to you?

    6. Re:And McDonalds does what in this scenario? by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      this single BK restaurant is "the internet", or monopoly gateway to is.

      Which is what makes the ad ridiculous. In real life, you would walk across the street to McD, Wendys, In and Out, Burgerville, Subway, Jimmy Johns, or any of a number of competitors. Or change ISPs, which might mean actually looking in the phone book to find one and not accepting the meme that your ISP is a monopoly.

    7. Re:And McDonalds does what in this scenario? by webnut77 · · Score: 1

      this single BK restaurant is "the internet", or monopoly gateway to is.

      Which is what makes the ad ridiculous. In real life, you would walk across the street to McD, Wendys, In and Out, Burgerville, Subway, Jimmy Johns, or any of a number of competitors. Or change ISPs, which might mean actually looking in the phone book to find one and not accepting the meme that your ISP is a monopoly.

      What you need to understand is that there is only one other place to eat in a 50 mile radius and they have the same policies. Also, the city prohibits opening any new eateries.

    8. Re:And McDonalds does what in this scenario? by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      Also, the city prohibits opening any new eateries.

      The city has no authority to prevent a new ISP from doing business there. None at all. In fact, why would they? They'll get the business taxes from the new company. Perhaps that is why there are so many ISPs currently in operation?

  7. I would like Burger King by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 0

    But Burger King restaurants are filthy.

    1. Re:I would like Burger King by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Not filthier than all the other fast food restaurants around here. Mostly 'cause our health inspectors are quick to shut down any restaurant that doesn't look like a pre-op operating room.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:I would like Burger King by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Not filthier than all the other fast food restaurants around here. Mostly 'cause our health inspectors are quick to shut down any restaurant that doesn't look like a pre-op operating room.

      When I worked in fast food, we (I) scrubbed down the walls and floors every night, besides all the other usual cleaning tasks. Fast food restaurants are probably cleaner on average than greasy spoons, at least.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:I would like Burger King by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      When I worked in fast food, we were required to clean the wheels of the chip ("french fry" for you yanks) machine. The franchise holder had a bee about it.

      Clean the cookware, though? Not a chance. Those go in the "sanitiser," pull the lid down, pull the lid up, and call it gold. Ten years' worth of grease built up on them, but I start to scrub it off and receive a reprimand for wasting time. /bitter

    4. Re:I would like Burger King by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      That's flavor you were wiping off. Makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

  8. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Good for you!

  9. Re:Nonsense by Diss+Champ · · Score: 2

    Actually, plenty of sit-down restaurants have something like this. You can take the slow approach of waiting for a table, or go to the bar and order food there. If you are alone or in a hurry the bar works well. If you are with a group and want to sit together instead of getting scattered (or at least strung out in a line where it is harder to talk), you wait. I seen places where the bar menu is the same, and other places where it is different.

    All that said, I agree that the fact that most places you have choices of lots of restaurants whose fate is determined by a open market makes all the difference in whether regulation is appropriate. The government (at various levels) has helped to get things into a condition where most people have little choice of internet providers, so there should be rules that prevent these monopolies from abusing their positions.

  10. that would be awesome ... by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

    ... to be able to choose more to get faster service at a restaurant. (Or conversely, get big savings if you are willing to wait.) Sounds good to me.

    1. Re:that would be awesome ... by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 1

      That was supposed to be "choose to pay more".

    2. Re:that would be awesome ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You mean like paying UPS ground for a 12-pack of socks instead of next day air?

      Can you imagine UPS or Fedex doing the same commercial and everyone saying, "yeah, that makes sense."

    3. Re:that would be awesome ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There's nothing wrong with premium services, but how it would work out in this case is that you'd have to pay more for the service you got at the moment, while people not paying the premium would be intentionally throttled.

    4. Re:that would be awesome ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      ... to be able to choose more to get faster service at a restaurant.

      Would it be awesome to have to pay more to get functional service at a restaurant? Because that's the actual scenario.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:that would be awesome ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Would it be awesome to have to pay more to get functional service at a restaurant? Because that's the actual scenario.

      If you're paying for non-functional service, wouldn't that be a matter for the FTC? If you're not getting what you paid for, isn't that fraud?

    6. Re:that would be awesome ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Informative

      If you're paying for non-functional service, wouldn't that be a matter for the FTC? If you're not getting what you paid for, isn't that fraud?

      Not now they've explicitly made it legal by abolishing NN. The ISP gets to decide what is functional, and if you don't like it, you can pay more — maybe. An ISP owned by a major news outlet might well just go ahead and make all other major news outlets load slower, and not give you the option to pay more to get them at the same speed, and it would be completely legal.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    7. Re:that would be awesome ... by dryeo · · Score: 1

      Except there is a real reason why ground delivery is slower and cheaper. There is no reason that Netflix should cost more then streaming someones catcam at 4k.
      Your UPS example is more like being able to buy a higher bitrate or higher cap from your ISP, fine under net neutrality.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    8. Re:that would be awesome ... by dryeo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      They could completely block the competing news service, or worse, block the registration site for the other party if they're political or if internet voting ever became a thing, block areas that might vote for the other party. ISP's could have a lot of political power by being the gatekeepers to various political sites.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    9. Re:that would be awesome ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'd pay double to ensure my fast food was being prepared by adults with forlorn hopes instead of completely incompetent high school kids. No question.

    10. Re:that would be awesome ... by sjames · · Score: 1

      But that's not what the commercial showed. It showed you could either have the regular old speed for double the normal price or you could wait the full regular time plus an artificial delay to have it at the regular price. Sound good?

    11. Re:that would be awesome ... by sjames · · Score: 1

      More like all socks are carried the same way but if you pay double, they won't hold them at a warehouse a mile from your home for 5 days before they put them on the delivery truck.

    12. Re:that would be awesome ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Is that a case for net neutrality, or for changing the laws to prevent the vertically integrated corporate behemoths that exist today?

    13. Re:that would be awesome ... by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Is that a case for net neutrality, or for changing the laws to prevent the vertically integrated corporate behemoths that exist today?

      As long as you mean or and not xor, sure. I think it's a case for both things. ISPs which do any blocking or prioritization which is not clearly in your best interest (like using QoS to guarantee delivery of VoIP, regardless of source and destination, would be) literally hold back the development of technology and society.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    14. Re:that would be awesome ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fortunately there's another way to challenge that. And that is by going after censorship and restriction of free speech.

  11. Re:Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not exactly but places like Starbucks allow you to order online and pickup at a local store. Your orders are ahead of the people waiting in line (inside the store or the drive through). It gives the appearance of you walking in and cutting to the front of the line because you used the online app.

  12. Unintentionally Ironic by davide+marney · · Score: 1

    If BK actually had such a policy, their customers would shop elsewhere starting tomorrow -- obviously. The commercial unintentionally makes the free marketer's point for them.

    To make matters worse, the old "neutrality" wasn't really neutral. The actual policy was more like BK could only sell burgers that the government let them sell.

    --
    "We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
    1. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by burtosis · · Score: 4, Informative

      Totally agree with you. They need a 15 second after shot where it pans out to people trying to shop elsewhere and the assistant on thier phone tells them that this is the only place they are legally allowed to buy fast food from. If they don't like it they are free to sell thier house and move.

    2. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Except that this is about internet service providers, so there is no "shopping elsewhere" for most people.

      And even if there was a choice and you are thinking of throwing the words "free market" in a reply, think again. Look at current prices and speeds. There's already collusion between the ISPs to have as little differences in prices and speeds as possible.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    3. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by tbannist · · Score: 1

      To make matters worse, the old "neutrality" wasn't really neutral. The actual policy was more like BK could only sell burgers that the government let them sell.

      Ever heard the aphorism "Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt"?

      Maybe you should consider it, because in no way, shape, or form does Title II regulation allow the government to dictate what ISPs are allowed to deliver to their customers. If you want to claim otherwise, you had better be ready to prove it.

      Frankly, the main reason I'm challenging you to prove it so that when you realize that you can't, you might actually learn something. I'm getting pretty sick of this ignorant twaddle being posted to Slashdot. You should already know better than that.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    4. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Entrope · · Score: 1

      So your complaints are not really about net neutrality, but instead about monopolies or near monopolies? And you're not going to even try to identify why those (near) monopolies exist, or the myriad other ways a monopoly can screw their customers?

    5. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by drinkypoo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If BK actually had such a policy, their customers would shop elsewhere starting tomorrow -- obviously.

      There is no 'elsewhere' for 1 in 3 households in America. There are plenty of small towns with only one or two restaurants in them. The situation becomes worse if you actually expand the metaphor to multiple restaurants, because municipalities create protectionist artificial scarcity there, too. You can only purchase food from a business with a license to sell you food. Municipalities control the distribution of these licenses on specious bases. For example, lots of places don't permit food trucks, or they make it prohibitively expensive to operate one — you have to apply for permits over and over again for each county you want to operate in. This isn't so bad in states with few counties, but California has something like 56 of them and just operating in half of the state means that you've got dozens to deal with. And California is where the people live.

      At both ends of the loop road I live on, people can get cable or DSL. But in the middle where I live, all I can get is access from a WISP which charges me $99/mo for 250GB at 6Mbps. What year is it? We paid the telcos to build out the last mile, and they pocketed over $450M and in fact paid the money out to executives in the form of bonuses. What if Taco Bell wins the fast food wars, and all restaurants are Taco Bell?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    6. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Same issue bitch ... NN makes a good alias for unifying attacks on scum-bag monopoly media-behavior. Close enough to damage is good enough.

    7. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by omnichad · · Score: 1

      The reason those monopolies exist has already been identified - they're a natural monopoly (or at least a natural oligopoly) like electricity or natural gas. There's a massive amount of infrastructure involved, and the cost of that only works out if you can recover that investment with a certain percentage of subscribers.

    8. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by omnichad · · Score: 1

      But to finish my point, regulation is not for every industry, but it's sometimes necessary for monopolies or near-monopolies because the consumer has a weak bargaining position.

    9. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      We paid the telcos to build out the last mile, and they pocketed over $466 BILLION (and counting) and in fact paid the money out to executives in the form of bonuses.

      FTFY.

      The updated book says $400B by the end of 2014, the old book said $200B by 2005, therefore we're giving those ratfuckers no less than $22.2B/yr.

    10. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by TheCastro1689 · · Score: 1

      You say for most people, but that's not true. Most people have several ISP choices in the US.

    11. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you don't sell your house and move, you've consented! I keep waiting for someone to apply the definition of consent used in politics to the definition of consent used in personal sexual relationships...

    12. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by dryeo · · Score: 1

      And even highly competitive industries such as fast food restaurants need regulating so they don't race to a bottom of saving money by not keeping the food preparation areas clean.

      --
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
    13. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, those municipalities and their anti-competitive requirement that food outlets have "hygiene" and no "e-coli". It would be much better in libertarian utopia where your surviving relatives can sue, assuming they can afford to without a breadwinner.

    14. Re: Unintentionally Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Think of all the walls we could build with that money!

    15. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      lol

    16. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by sjames · · Score: 1

      Too bad there's no such option for internet service in many areas.

      In real life (as opposed to the elementary school level understanding of competition), you'd need to have a few dozen ISPs to choose from in order to keep the competitors honest.

    17. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by sjames · · Score: 1

      I live in a major metro area and here there are two. Two is not enough to make market competition work. There'd need to be dozens.

    18. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by davide+marney · · Score: 1

      And what part, exactly, of "regulate" do you not understand?

      --
      "We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
    19. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by davide+marney · · Score: 0

      But Title II did nothing to end this situation. In fact, it may have made it slightly worse. The freer the market, the faster (and typically cheaper and better) you will get a solution.

      --
      "We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
    20. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by davide+marney · · Score: 1

      Hardly. Take Apple and Android. According to your lights, we have no competition among smartphone makers. That's daft.

      --
      "We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
    21. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by davide+marney · · Score: 1

      Do not most people live in urban areas? Are there not multiple ISPs in urban areas?

      --
      "We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
    22. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by davide+marney · · Score: 1

      Apple v Android. Are you saying that's not competitive?

      --
      "We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
    23. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      The freer the market, the faster (and typically cheaper and better) you will get a solution.

      Did you type that with a straight face, or were you smirking the whole time?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    24. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      [...] We paid the telcos to build out the last mile, and they pocketed over $450M and in fact paid the money out to executives in the form of bonuses. What if Taco Bell wins the fast food wars, and all restaurants are Taco Bell?

      A Judge Dredd distopia, that's what happens.

    25. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by sjames · · Score: 1

      But the choice isn't just Apple and Android, it's Apple, HTC, Samsung, LG, etc.

    26. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by tbannist · · Score: 1

      And what part, exactly, of "regulate" do you not understand?

      What part of this regulation do you actually understand?

      The Title II regulation (or common carrier) gives the ISPs immunity to prosecution for carrying your communications in exchange for restricting them from interfering with your communications. So, in actual fact, the regulation does the opposite of what you think it does. Since the company isn't allowed to interfere with your communications, the government is actually less able to order them to interfere with your communications (because there is no legal reason for the company to even have the ability to interfere).

      If you don't believe me, ask yourself, how many times has a government censor interrupted your phone call by buzzing out words they didn't think you should be able to say? Because according to your ignorant reasoning, that should already be happening.

      Now, kindly stop writing about things you know nothing about.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
    27. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by sjames · · Score: 1

      Like I said before, elementary school level understanding. There are many companies all selling their own variation on Android.

    28. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by shilly · · Score: 1

      Competitive intensity doesn't just vary linearly with the number of competitors, though. There are significant differences between the markets for smartphones and broadband, which mean that you need more competitors in the latter than the former for an effective market (and NB, there may be only two major platforms, but there are half a dozen platforms altogether, and there are hundreds of smartphone manufacturers).

    29. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Yeah, those municipalities and their anti-competitive requirement that food outlets have "hygiene" and no "e-coli".

      I am not opposed to health inspections, or a reasonable fee for them to be carried out. If I thought otherwise, I'd have mentioned it.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    30. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      They need a 15 second after shot where it pans out to people trying to shop elsewhere and the assistant on thier phone tells them that this is the only place they are legally allowed to buy fast food from.

      When has the government EVER told ANYONE that they may only buy ISP service from one specific company? Never is when.

    31. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      Except that this is about internet service providers, so there is no "shopping elsewhere" for most people.

      Except at another ISP.

      There's already collusion between the ISPs to have as little differences in prices and speeds as possible.

      Wait a minute. If there is only one ISP, then with what other ISP is your only ISP colluding with, and why do they need to collude to keep you from changing your service?

      If you can prove this collusion, then you have a good case for antitrust action. But you have to prove it, and there has to be someone to collude with.

    32. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      There are plenty of small towns with only one or two restaurants in them.

      If only someone would invent something that allows people in one small town to drive to another small town...

      You can only purchase food from a business with a license to sell you food.

      And now the stupidity where the business license is being used as proof of government-granted monopoly status for ISPs. Will this never end?

      But in the middle where I live, all I can get is access from a WISP which charges me $99/mo for 250GB at 6Mbps.

      You know, if some company thought it was profitable to wire your road to provide service to you, they would have. It's not because the evil government let's only one company do it, it's because NO company chooses to lose money trying to provide service to you.

      We paid the telcos to build out the last mile,

      So you don't even have telephone service?

      What if Taco Bell wins the fast food wars, and all restaurants are Taco Bell?

      They haven't, and they aren't.

    33. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I really like how you ommited the part of his comment that says "And even if there was a choice..." to try to force a reply out of him.

    34. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Entrope · · Score: 1

      Building and operating the infrastructure is indeed a natural monopoly, and it is reasonable to vertically extend it to the provision of broadcast services (like traditional TV) over that infrastructure. No one has made a convincing case that the same natural monopoly extends vertically to the provision of switched services, whether those are virtual circuit-swiched services like traditional voice calls, or packet-switched services like computer traffic. I do not think a convincing case for that exists.

      The reasons we have that vertical integration are historical -- because it was easy for the companies that built infrastructure to package extra stuff in -- and legal -- because those companies have lobbied against open-access rules.

      For a while, laws were passed to require the companies that ran telephone lines (ILECs, in the industry jargon) to provide reasonable and non-discriminatory access for competitive providers (CLECs) to the switching offices where customers' telephone lines were aggregated. The ILECs successfully lobbied to have those requirements struck for non-POTS systems, like FTTP, and then effectively killed their POTS systems to kill the CLECs.

    35. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by omnichad · · Score: 1

      For a while, laws were passed to require the companies that ran telephone lines (ILECs, in the industry jargon) to provide reasonable and non-discriminatory access for competitive providers (CLECs) to the switching offices where customers' telephone lines were aggregated. The ILECs successfully lobbied to have those requirements struck for non-POTS systems, like FTTP, and then effectively killed their POTS systems to kill the CLECs.

      Just like there's only so much room in the broadcast spectrum (traditional TV), there's only so much room for last-mile structured cabling on the poles or under the ground. And there's only so much cost that can be absorbed.

      No, I don't think telecoms should be handed money to build out and then be forced to lease it to competitors - but that's already happened. I think that last-mile should be a public utility built and paid for by the public. I'd love to see this being a make-work project by our government, and should have been considered as part of Obama's economic stimulus alongside roads and bridges. And honestly, if Trump were thinking about greatest public good for our taxpayer dollar (actual fiscal conservatism) rather than tax breaks, he would do it too.

    36. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      If only someone would invent something that allows people in one small town to drive to another small town...

      So your suggestion is that people drive to the next small town fifty miles away for lunch? That seems abusive.

      And now the stupidity where the business license is being used as proof of government-granted monopoly status for ISPs. Will this never end?

      Not if you insist on being obtuse. I was using restaurant licenses to stand in for monopoly agreements which outright prevent competition. It's not that complicated, please try to keep up.

      You know, if some company thought it was profitable to wire your road to provide service to you, they would have. It's not because the evil government let's only one company do it, it's because NO company chooses to lose money trying to provide service to you.

      That is patently false. It is because the evil [local] government only lets one company do it, and you are either ignorant or a liar. There's no third way. Educate yourself, or stop lying.

      So you don't even have telephone service?

      We paid them over $450B to provide 10+Mbps internet access to everyone with a telephone line, and they have been giving the money out to executives as bonuses instead of building the infrastructure we've paid them to build.

      But since you ask, I cancelled my land line because it went dead and ATT said I would have to wait six weeks to get it back. I don't call that service, do you?

      What if Taco Bell wins the fast food wars, and all restaurants are Taco Bell?

      They haven't, and they aren't.

      Whoosh!

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    37. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by burtosis · · Score: 1

      I live in a major metropolitan center and have exactly 1 choice for high speed internet. Since cable is the only high speed internet technology that does deliver bandwidth at reasonable cost (haha fiber in my dreams), and other cable providers are prohibited by state and local laws in my and many areas, it is an apt metaphor. I'm not alone, a very large percentage of Americans are forced into one choice by the monopoly granted by the government.

    38. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your post is quite funny. 'Several ISP choices' in the US is what, 2 or 3? That's at least oligopoly. Now compare ISP landscape in the US and in the Europe. In a major metro area in Central Europe you'll get dozens of ISP choices for instance.

    39. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It wouldn't be if the weren't lots of manufacturers for Android phones. It is only competitive because Google gives Android away for free and isn't too restrictive on its use. And on the lower end it is mostly just Android manufacturers competing with other Android manufacturers, your only Apple option is getting a second hand phone.

    40. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      I live in a major metropolitan center and have exactly 1 choice for high speed internet.

      When has the government EVER told ANYONE that they may only buy ISP service from one specific company? Never is when. This is not an example of a time.

      Since cable is the only high speed internet technology that does deliver bandwidth at reasonable cost

      Now you're talking about the cost, not the availability or that the government has told you that you may buy service from only one ISP. You've just answered the question implicitly -- there is no real monopoly.

      and other cable providers are prohibited by state and local laws in my and many areas,

      Sorry, but no. Federal law preempts state and local law on this. And cable is not the only medium for internet despite your claim to the contrary.

      I'm not alone, a very large percentage of Americans are forced into one choice by the monopoly granted by the government.

      Sorry, no. The government has not granted a single ISP anywhere in the US a monopoly. Period. Has not happened. Cable, as a medium for cable TV, USED to be able to get exclusive franchises, but exclusive franchises have been ILLEGAL for more that two decades now. Federal law. Telcos still have monopoly status for wired telephone service, but they are not the only ISP, and their ISP service has no government granted monopoly status and never has.

      The reason you can buy from only on ISP (which I really doubt, but we'll accept for the moment) is not because the government has granted your ISP a monopoly, it is for the reason you already mentioned: cost. No company will overbuild an existing system in any medium if the costs are more than the market will bear. They can't make a profit.

      Now, I suspect that there are other ISPs you could buy from, but you are unwilling to pay the cost. Just as in the example for the Colorado city that decided to compete against incumbent ISPs because there was only one option -- there were actually more than 8 options. In fact, if you are in a major metropolitan area and you think there is only one ISP for the entire city, you are just not looking hard enough, or you are creating reasons why all but one is "good enough" for you. They exist, they'll happily sell to you, but it will cost a lot more than the cable you are using now. That, sir, is not a "government granted monopoly", it is an economic one, and a "monopoly" created by the consumer refusing to pay the costs of service is not a true monopoly.

      So, the short version is, never has the government told you that you can buy ISP service from only one company.

    41. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      So your suggestion is that people drive to the next small town fifty miles away for lunch? That seems abusive.

      If you don' t like the restaurants in the town where you live, yes, the solution is to go someplace else. I doubt you live fifty miles away from the next town, but if you do, then you've chosen to live in a place with limited supply and limited choices. Next time, choose better.

      I was using restaurant licenses to stand in for monopoly agreements which outright prevent competition.

      I know. That's what I replied to. It is stupid to claim that a business license OF ANY KIND creates a government-granted monopoly. A business license does not grant any exclusivity, it is just a license to do business and creates a method of tracking your business for tax and other purposes. The next guy who wants a business license in the same business gets one and poof goes your government granted monopoly. It really isn't that hard, please do understand your own analogies, ok?

      It is because the evil [local] government only lets one company do it,

      Bullshit. Absolute and utter bullshit. Who pays you to spread these lies?

      and you are either ignorant or a liar.

      I can open up my phone book to the yellow pages and find half a dozen or more ISPs advertising their services. I have had two ISPs at the same time at the same house, and I know at least two more that would happily take my money to be my ISP -- even though you claim that the government allows only one of them to exist. Hmmm. Who is the ignorant liar?

      ATT said I would have to wait six weeks to get it back. I don't call that service, do you?

      So you're pissed about poor service. Fine. Complain to your state PUC. That's what they are there for.

      Whoosh!

      Whoosh your own fucking self. Your Taco Bell analogy was patently stupid, because there have been no "fast food wars" and nobody has been a sole winner. There are scads of ISPs all around you, if you'd bother to look. But it is more fun you hurl nonsense about evil government monopolies keeping you from getting what you want than to admit it is there, just not the exact way you demand that it be.

    42. Re:Unintentionally Ironic by burtosis · · Score: 1

      If you consider 10Mbps up and 1 down or more high speed then there is only cellular, with its high price, satellite, with its high price and latency, DSL won't consistently hit these speeds here and one single cable internet provider choice. There are three (at least) cable ISP in my area with about 20% overlap tops, 80% of millions of people have 1 choice, 20% have 2+. You are just poorly informed, its probably not your fault. There really are many laws that create ISP monopolies and conservative sources not just liberals bitch about them, but don't let facts get in the way of any of your fun.

  13. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Great! Means my wait time just went down. Can you stop eating at BBW, Hardee's/Carl's Jr., KFC, Taco Bell and Popeyes too?

  14. Re: Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What regulation is stopping you from investing in a new ISP?

  15. Re:Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yeah well, you said it your self: "has helped to get things into a condition where most people have little choice of internet providers". It's quite a leap of faith to trust the gov to fix the problem it created, so the solution clearly cannot be that, but more like fixing the problem that originated the situation: remove those regulations, let the market compete.

  16. Slashdot trails by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Slashdot, when you absolutely positively want to discuss things dates after they already have been discussed in the general press.

    Brilliant.

  17. NN is BAD, more competition will solve all issues by anthony_greer · · Score: 1

    reduce regulatory red tape on infrastructure at state and local levels that allow for local monopolies and the issue will resolve its self. If municipalities, small or mid sized ISP companies, and perhaps even non profits like the Farm Bureau in rural areas, are allowed to sell services against Comcast and ATT, things will improve dramatically. There is no need to put bureaucrats in charge of what can and cant be seen online and make no mistake, the NN regs as they were written absolutely laid the framework for rulemaking about what can and cant be seen online. What else do you think all that talk about legal network traffic was? what is an illegal network traffic load? today its just a botnet or something but tomorrow that could be used to reclassify non politically correct speech as illegal traffic.

  18. Re:This is why America is so obese by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

    So this would explain the rise in overweight mathematicians over the past couple decades....

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  19. A good spoof by DaMattster · · Score: 2

    Admittedly, I enjoyed the commercial and it did do a good job watering down the issue for the absolute layman. However, the issue is not that simple. It's not only about the lack of net neutrality creating paid high speed lanes, it's also harming consumers who might not want to watch Comcast Xfinity content but are more interested in Netflix. Furthermore, without some kind of neutrality, what is to prevent the ISPs from charging a base price simply for web browsing at say 39.95 and charging extra to have social media, streaming, or other kinds of service unlocked.

    1. Re:A good spoof by tbannist · · Score: 1

      It's not only about the lack of net neutrality creating paid high speed lanes, it's also harming consumers who might not want to watch Comcast Xfinity content but are more interested in Netflix.

      They actually covered that: it was only whoppers (Netflix) that were tiered, if you wanted a chicken sandwich (Comcast Xfinity) then you didn't have to wait or pay extra. The even mentioned it was because they wanted to sell more chicken sandwiches.

      --
      Fanatically anti-fanatical
  20. Re: Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    The one that bars me from running new wires to people's houses.

    You might not have that where you live, but a lot of people do, where it's literally illegal for a new ISP to run hardware to people's houses, even if they want them to.

  21. WTi-Fi? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    Poster on the wall says "Wi-Fi only for 6.33"

    Was that part of the fake ad, or is this real?!

    Here in Canada we get free wi-fi from McDonald's or Tim Horton as soon as we buy something. A lot of them don't even lock or change the password so as soon as you're a customer once, you have access.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
    1. Re:WTi-Fi? by dominator · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's a subtle dig at the FCC/Ajit Pai. 6.33 = "FCC", based on where the characters appear in the English alphabet.

    2. Re:WTi-Fi? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thats a lie. Every McDonald's I've been in for the past few years offers free wi-fi for customers during their visit.

    3. Re:WTi-Fi? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      Oh, I did not even think of that. Nice nerdy touch.

      I did laugh at the big-ass Reese cup at the end though, not sure how many people in the USA will even get that reference.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    4. Re:WTi-Fi? by omnichad · · Score: 1

      That is seriously subtle. I did not pick up on that.

  22. Slow lanes by Chewbacon · · Score: 1

    The slow lanes for ordering a burger are actually at Whataburger.

    --
    Chewbacon
    The Bible is like Wikipedia: written by a bunch of people and verifiable by questionable sources.
  23. Re:Using politics as marketing by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

    So, Burger King wants to help you and your reaction is to boycott them? What's wrong with you?

    Click on "Slow Reply to This" to have your reply online in 10 minutes or less,
    click on "Fast Reply to This" to have your reply online in 2 minutes or less,
    click on "Hyperfast Reply to This" to have your reply online in 15 seconds or less.

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  24. Re: Nonsense by TheReaperD · · Score: 4, Informative

    Despite the ridiculous amount of capital it takes, a lot. The number one place that there are issues is utility poles. Right now, most municipalities have regulations that you must wait for the incumbent player to move their cables to make room for yours. Typically, there is no required turnaround time, or it's a ridiculously long time like 90 days per pole and they can charge you whatever they want for the "service." Some municipalities passed what a are called "one touch make ready" regulations but, the incumbents have sued every time, with varied results but, if nothing else, you had to wait for the lawsuit to conclude before you could proceed. One touch make ready is a regulation that allows a new players to move aside existing cables to make room for their own on the condition that they do not harm existing cables or interfere with the competitor's service. Google fiber required that one touch make ready laws were passed before they would consider your city for their service.

    --
    "Be particularly skeptical when presented with evidence confirming what you already believe." -
  25. Re:NN is BAD, more competition will solve all issu by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ISPs are at the mercy of what Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon charge them, since those guys own the pipes needed for broadband. The last mile in each city and town was installed over many decades with the encouragement and subsidy from local governments, waiving complicated rules and rights and way. Even Google, with all its resources, has pretty much given up trying to compete in the local ISP market.

    The FCC wants to deregulate a natural monopoly. That's a big problem.

  26. Best Burger King Commercial ever. by MrSavage · · Score: 1

    'Nuff said.

  27. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So junk food restaurant chains are not allowed to voice their opinion? Especially in areas where such policies may affect their business.
    Chick-fil-A is mostly located in the Bible Belt, so being overly liberal could effect its business.
    Papa Johns needs an army of low paid workers, having them pay for health insurance will hit their business model.
    Burger King I expect needs net neutrality, as it is trying to get back into the game, the once #2 burger chain, is loosing a lot of ground. For it to try to get press again, they need to advertise on the cheaper routs of the internet. Having there voice being blocked means they will not be able to run their business.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  28. Misinformation, making the problem worse by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

    They are, unfortunately, perpetuating a myth about network neutrality which is completely wrong. Burger King has now hurt the network neutrality case. Every ISP, always has, and always will, offer varying speeds. That's not a violation of neutrality.

    1. Re:Misinformation, making the problem worse by Whorhay · · Score: 1

      Nope, the speed has always been a function of the hardware in your area. The bandwidth has been something that was available in differently priced tiers. This is readily apparent if you look at the burger as a packet. It wasn't the case that the employee couldn't push the burger across the counter slowly but that they weren't allowed to hand it over until some arbitrary time had passed.

      I can pay my ISP more money to get more bandwidth, but for some things latency is more important. And no amount of bandwidth will make up for bad latency. It might be possible to pay an ISP for better latency but I'm sure the cost would be exorbitant as it'd require upgrading all kinds of infrastructure.

    2. Re:Misinformation, making the problem worse by omnichad · · Score: 1

      The speed throttling only applies to specific products. If you want a chicken sandwich, you are not throttled. They covered this.

    3. Re:Misinformation, making the problem worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They are, unfortunately, perpetuating a myth about network neutrality which is completely wrong. Burger King has now hurt the network neutrality case. Every ISP, always has, and always will, offer varying speeds. That's not a violation of neutrality.

      What myth is that, specifically?

    4. Re:Misinformation, making the problem worse by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Even under net neutrality discriminating services (voip vs ftp) was generally allowed it was discriminating different service providers that was restricted (coke vs pepsi).

    5. Re:Misinformation, making the problem worse by omnichad · · Score: 1

      Well I don't think Burger King is going to start selling Big Macs just to be technically accurate in any case. It's close enough.

    6. Re:Misinformation, making the problem worse by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

      You started the post with "nope" but then you seemed to agree with me. *shrugs* As someone else in this chain pointed out, the analogy would really only work if Burger King started selling Big Macs, but slower. The whole thing makes no sense.

    7. Re:Misinformation, making the problem worse by MobyDisk · · Score: 1

      There is a common myth that Network Neutrality means that ISPs cannot provide bandwidth tiers. I've had to explain to dozens of people that NN does not forbid an ISP from offering a 10GB/sec plan, a 25GB/sec plan, and a 50GB/sec plan. I've had people tell me that they didn't support NN because they did not think that it was fair to force the ISP to offer me the same bandwidth they offer Google or Amazon or Netflix. Surely those companies should be able to pay for greater bandwidth. Those people are right, and if that is what neutrality meant then I would think that too!

    8. Re:Misinformation, making the problem worse by Whorhay · · Score: 1

      The "speed" at concern in regards to Net Neutrality is all about how fast a packet is delivered to you. High bandwidth is frequently conflated with speed, this is because with more bandwidth you can receive more packets at any given time. Bandwidth won't help though if your ISP decides that all packets coming from a specific source will be delivered to you slower than packets from their preferred source. Without Net Neutrality there is nothing stopping your ISP from deciding that they will deliver all Netflix content you request fives minutes after you click the link for it.

      When I was talking about not being able to buy better latency I was speaking about the current situation. What the FCC is doing is essentially allowing ISPs to create a market for latency by deliberately slowing down network traffic they aren't being paid to serve. Once the new rules go through I fully expect my ISP to start extorting money out of popular websites to treat their traffic preferentially, and possibly offer me service plans to not kneecap my network traffic with websites that won't play ball with them.

  29. Funny ad, but common practice by magzteel · · Score: 0

    Most large amusement parks offer "fast lanes", "fast pass", etc, so you can skip the long lines.
    Many public highways have express lanes with tolls. Or HOV lanes you can use if you buy an EV or Hybrid.
    Airlines, trains, etc, offer different classes of service at different price points.
    Theater and show tickets have different prices for different locations in the theater, assuming you could buy them at all. They cost much more when you buy through a ticket broker.
    Every manufacturer offers volume based pricing.

    Examples go on and on

    1. Re:Funny ad, but common practice by 110010001000 · · Score: 2

      The difference is that amusements parks aren't critical for modern life. Also, many areas there might be one choice for Internet provider. So no, not "common practice".

    2. Re:Funny ad, but common practice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No the difference is that anyone can buy the fastlane tickets, and anyone can still get on the ride without the fastlane tickets.

      Now, imagine if no matter what ticket you got, you sometimes couldn't get on some rides or had to wait in a long line even with the fastlane pass, and on some other rides everyone gets a free fastlane pass, based on which entrance you entered the park through and which rides are owned by that entrance. And also, depending on where you live, you're only allowed to use one specific entrance.

    3. Re:Funny ad, but common practice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ...
      Parcel carriers (ground vs air)
      Airlines (first class vs coach) ...

    4. Re:Funny ad, but common practice by magzteel · · Score: 1

      The difference is that amusements parks aren't critical for modern life. Also, many areas there might be one choice for Internet provider. So no, not "common practice".

      Neither is Burger King "critical for modern life" nor the only choice in fast food providers.
      My point is that people and businesses are definitely willing to pay for different qualities of service or quantities of a product.

      Regardless this is about the relevance of the Burger King ad to the subject of Net Neutrality.

    5. Re:Funny ad, but common practice by mentil · · Score: 1

      False. I have a doctor's note specifically saying that I MUST eat Burger King every day. Or was it 'MUST NOT'? I always forget. Damn amyloid plaques.

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  30. Re: Nonsense by jecowa · · Score: 1

    The drive through is often the fast lane and going indoors to order is the slow lane. The drive through customers usually take priority.

    --
    my opportunity to freely express myself with the potential persecution and hangings and such
  31. Re:NN is BAD, more competition will solve all issu by anthony_greer · · Score: 1

    this isnt about FCC - its about local and state regs that prevent non incumbents from pulling new cable on existing poles. As I said, its about infrastructure. They dont have to use ATT or comcasts wires, they just need access to poles and underground viaducts.

  32. Re: Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Utility poles. How quaint. I sometimes see these poles; usually in the old, rundown, low rent section of towns. Modern built developments (in my area anything in about the last 35 years) use underground wiring and not poles. My parent's house - built in 1970 in a fairly cheap housing tract - was one of the first in the area to have all underground. No poles anywhere. My last thee houses I have owned have all have underground.

    Do other areas still have poles in places newer than 35 years? Do they still have those godawful "weatherheads" that connect the wires from the poles to the houses?

  33. The "customers" are in on it. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not taking anything away from the sentiment but "real customers" in the industry means:

    Talent interviewer: "Hi Mr. Professional Actor, have you ever eaten at Burger King?"
    Actor: "Yes."
    Talent interviewer: *puts checkmark in the box marked "real BK customer" *

  34. Re:Using politics as marketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Click on "Slow Reply to This" to have your reply online in 10 minutes or less,
    click on "Fast Reply to This" to have your reply online in 2 minutes or less,
    click on "Hyperfast Reply to This" to have your reply online in 15 seconds or less.

    You mean like Slashdot, except, it's "sign in to reply, otherwise we'll throttle you."

  35. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by tsqr · · Score: 1

    Chick-fil-A is mostly located in the Bible Belt, so being overly liberal could effect its business.

    On a "number of restaurant per capita" basis it looks that way, but they have locations in 45 states and the District of Columbia. There are 4 locations within a 15-minute drive of where I work in SoCal. The store on Westwood Bl, right on the edge of the UCLA campus (hardly a bastion of religious conservatism) does a booming business. Oh, and by the way: effect =~ s/^e/a/

  36. Re: Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I sometimes see these poles; usually in the old, rundown, low rent section of towns.

    Do they still have those godawful "weatherheads" that connect the wires from the poles to the houses?

    Can you be bothered to elevate your eyes ~10 degrees? Not a whole lot new out there in power distribution... /counter-snark

  37. Re: Nonsense by tsqr · · Score: 1

    The drive through is often the fast lane and going indoors to order is the slow lane. The drive through customers usually take priority.

    LOL. Apparently you've never been to In-n-Out during dinnertime.

  38. What about airplanes? by OneHundredAndTen · · Score: 2

    Freaking airplanes are a better example, if it is only because it is real. The lack of rules equivalent to net neutrality in airplanes has turned what never was a very pleasant experience into something borderline Kafkaesque. Huge middle finger to airlines world over.

  39. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by ph0rk · · Score: 2

    On a "number of restaurant per capita" basis it looks that way,

    Which is the only meaningful way to talk about where a chain has concentrated its business.

    --
    semantics are everything!
  40. Priority Queue by Danathar · · Score: 2

    Here is the thing. The Ad is awesome, but that's NOT how they would present it to customers. They would do something like say "for an extra $20 cents you can be in our priority queue to get your burger faster". In fact, I'm surprised some fast food restaurant has not already tried it.

    1. Re:Priority Queue by omnichad · · Score: 2

      "for an extra $20 cents"

      Is that Verizon math?

  41. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apple, Intel, Microsoft, Ford all stick their noses into social agendas. Are you going to stop using their products? Or just the products of companies who support social agendas you don't support? You'd have to stop buying a lot of products from many different companies - including coffee from Starbucks - if you want to avoid companies that have supported some social agenda or another.

  42. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You missed 'loosing'..

  43. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by omnichad · · Score: 1

    Papa Johns needs an army of low paid workers, having them pay for health insurance will hit their business model.

    Papa Johns already had a loophole for this all along anyway. Most locations are independent franchises that don't have enough employees to fall under any insurance requirements anyway.

  44. Re: Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I sometimes see these poles; usually in the old, rundown, low rent section of towns.

    Do they still have those godawful "weatherheads" that connect the wires from the poles to the houses?

    Can you be bothered to elevate your eyes ~10 degrees? Not a whole lot new out there in power distribution... /counter-snark

    Sorry. I'm living in northern Europe. Last time I saw such poles was in the 80's in the rural south of France.

  45. Re: Nonsense by cmseagle · · Score: 1

    most municipalities have regulations that you must wait for the incumbent player to move their cables to make room for yours.

    This is one place where I have sympathy for the incumbents. How many Slashdot sysadmins would be fine with a competitor's engineer messing with the fiber runs in your data center under the condition "that they do not harm existing cables"? Maybe they're only making simple modifications to the setup but eventually someone's going to mess up. Your users aren't going to care that technically it was someone else who broke the internet.

    Regulations that stipulate reasonable service times and fees seem like a reasonable middle ground.

  46. Re: Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But the pricing is the same ..

  47. Best analogy by realmolo · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Imagine if you couldn't call Pizza Hut without paying an additional $15 to Verizon, because Pizza Hut refused to pay Verizon for "access" to their customers. But if you call Papa John's, you get a 20% discount on your order because Papa John's *did* pay Verizon for access to the customers.

    Now extend that to every phone call you make. Imagine if the only calls you could make for "free" (as part of your plan) were to individuals and businesses that are paying for the privilege of having Verizon customers call them without additional charges.

    THAT is why not having net neutrality is bad. The entire internet will rapidly become pay-per-view, and only the BIGGEST companies will be able to afford to pay-off the bandwidth providers/ISPs to make their content "free".

    1. Re:Best analogy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The entire internet will rapidly become pay-per-view in the domestic US"

      FTFY.

    2. Re:Best analogy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Cell phone plans use to work this way, with free calling to individuals on the same carrier network, and for everything out of network it would come out of your allotted minutes for the month. Eventually competition eliminated that, as well as other archaic restrictions.

    3. Re:Best analogy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Sounds like 800 numbers.

    4. Re:Best analogy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a good analogy because neither of these things are happening.

    5. Re:Best analogy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Your phone call analogy is very close. In fact, it's very close to what used to happen before the mid to late 80's (here in Canada). If you don't think it could happen, they've done it in the past.

      You had a contract with the phone company called ABC. It might even be a government run phone company (think BCtel, AGT, SaskTel, MTS)! In your home, only ABC phones could be used. Each one rented from ABC at $5/month. You want two phones in your house? That's $5 per phone, $10. Plus the line to use them on for $10. So that's $20/month. Got a phone because you used XYZ before? Yeah, no. ABC phones only. Got one from a friend who had it laying around, maybe work was throwing a bunch away? Nope, that's a charge. Just think there was a "hidden phone" black market, such that you paid monthly for one phone but actually had 2 or 3 in the home.

      You want an answering machine? That's an additional line, plus the cost of a phone rental. Some people got away with only the phone rental charge. So that's another $15/month, just for hooking up your own answering machine to a line you already paid for. No new phone number, just so the answering machine could be hooked up.

      You want a 300 baud modem? Technically you have to pay also but I don't recall anyone actually paying for this one.

      And this one I know because we bought a house with an intercom built into it. An ABC installer came out to install a second phone in the house (yup, you couldn't do it yourself, it was charged, of course) and saw the intercom. Using your phones as an intercom was prohibited, unless you paid a monthly fee. However, this house had a separate line for the intercom, so it was not on ABC's circuit, thus we didn't have to pay. I don't recall the extra charge they wanted for that.

      These two actually have an argument, mainly cost + satellite service, for them. However the charges were very high and fell dramatically once competition was allowed, again just before the 1990's.
      Want to phone someone outside your city? That'll be $0.75/minute
      Want to phone to the USA? That'll be $1/minute.
      Want to phone overseas (Europe, Asia, etc)? That'll be $2/minute.

      TV's came out with a phone built into them. The idea being you could see the phone ring and answer it right there, from a remote control, instead of running across the house to answer. Well, actually, you can't do that, your ABC contract specifically prevents it. Depending on the area, your local laws may not allow that either plus it might be illegal to sell such a TV. In fact, connecting two adjacent homes with an intercom service was prohibited. Unless it was ABC, of course.

      It was huge when all of that was lifted. All of a sudden you paid the $10/month and you could go down and buy as many phones as you want from your local electronics store. And plug them all in. Answering machines too. And modems. And buy the TV model with the phones built in (I don't recall anyone actually buying them, just laughing at them). Long distance rates fell dramatically to 1/10 of the original pricing. Phoning someone just outside your city was now included in the $10/month. USA was down to $0.10/minute. And so on.

      The loss of Net Neutrality would bring this type of thing back, just in the context of data instead of voice.

    6. Re:Best analogy by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      Now extend that to every phone call you make. Imagine if the only calls you could make for "free" (as part of your plan) were to individuals and businesses that are paying for the privilege of having Verizon customers call them without additional charges.

      You mean like the difference between toll free 800/877/etc numbers paid for by the recipient and regular long distance paid for by the caller? Fuck, I pay a "federal access fee" to get access to long distance calling and I DON'T HAVE A LONG DISTANCE PROVIDER so I can't make long distance calls at all.

  48. Sounds good by iamacat · · Score: 1

    Drivethrough use case has very different latency requirements than dining in, I don't mind BK deploing traffic shaping to account for that. For Netflix-style bulk consumption of the same item, it would make sense to just have a pile of burgers on the counter and have everyone grab one and swipe their credit card. Sure they get preferential service, but they also don't route their orders all the way to the kitchen and are in and out fast.

    1. Re:Sounds good by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      For Netflix-style bulk consumption of the same item, it would make sense to just have a pile of burgers on the counter and have everyone grab one and swipe their credit card.

      That's actually how it works. At peak times, the vast majority of fast food restaurants prepare food preemptively, and queue it for delivery to customers. The epitome of this practice AFAIK (I have never been into some well-known chains like White Castle simply due to lack of proximity, so I can't speak to every fast food shit-slinger) is McDonalds, which will queue up several of each of their most popular sandwiches before the lunch rush. Some restaurants prep complete sandwiches, which is why they are so very crap even when fresh — again, I'm looking at McDonald's here — they have to be engineered for shelf life, so they're not as good when they're fresh. The bread is the part of the meal which suffers the most; real bread would be steamed into library paste if it sat on the shelf in a wrapper with a burger for that long. After the food sits on the warmer for a sufficient period of time, it simply gets thrown away, which is probably what they should have done with it in the first place.

      Others cook only the meat ahead of time, and if they cook too much then they can still use it for something else. At Wendy's you're supposed to flip the burger at least twice IIRC, cooking it at such and such temp for such and such time between flips. But you can keep it on the grill and flip it up to five times (again, IIRC) to keep it hot and ready for a customer, at which point it goes into a plastic hotel pan in a warming cabinet to be stored for later use as chili meat. Chili stock arrives in cans, and is combined with this old hamburger meat in the restaurant. That's why you should only get burgers at Wendy's during peak times (when they're making lots of fresh ones) and never eat the chili. From the complexity of the valve on the frostie machine and the haphazard way many people do dishes, you might want to skip that one too. It's broken down and "cleaned" every night, but they don't pull the seals and refresh the vaseline (which comes in a tube labeled "food service lubricant") every night so that stuff can trap bacteria.

      I'm not sure why I bothered to type all this out, except maybe the hope that some bright spark will come along and torture it into a NN simile, and then we can all have a good laugh. Obviously it's grossly offtopic, but I for one come to Slashdot for the rants and digresssions.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    2. Re:Sounds good by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The chili is the best part of Wendy's and I think its the only reason they're in business.

      My middle school used to save meat and vegetable leftovers Monday-Thursday to make into a soup on Friday, and that never killed anyone. It was usually good too.

    3. Re:Sounds good by mentil · · Score: 1

      I'm honestly more grossed out by the prospect of vaseline in my frosties than by it not being changed often enough. Considering workers at fast food restaurants aren't given paid sick leave I'm more worried about viruses from sick employees than bacteria, anyhow. Unless it's Chipotle, then I'd be worried about everything. It might be best to just pop a few laxatives after eating there, to hasten the inevitable. Or some ipecac.
      What I'd like to know is why the warming ovens don't use ionizing radiation to keep the food sterilized, food could be kept in there indefinitely in that case.

      --
      Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  49. Re: Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Cause it's so much cheaper and you don't need any permits to run new lines underground.

  50. Re:Using politics as marketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    > wants to help you

    How does so called "net nutrality" help anyone other than big goverment types who want to destroy the free market?

  51. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by necro81 · · Score: 1

    I stopped going to Chick-fil-A and Papa John's because of their political or social agendas

    Do you hold Hobby Lobby to the same standard?

  52. Haven't we always had this with the postal system? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Haven't we always had a situation where you pay more for faster service with the postal system? Nobody ever complained about that or thought it was ridiculous. Book rate is cheaper than 2-day, which is in turn cheaper than overnight.

  53. Get rid of toll roads by sycodon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Many Toll Roads are built with the rationale that of you pay the toll, then you can travel faster than the rest of the schmucks.

    A prime example of Austin, TX with a toll road with prices that vari with the traffic. Presumably, it's worth more to go faster.

    Of course the reality is they fucked it up and people end up spending$5 to go a few miles just as slow as everyone else.

    So if paying more at BK, or your ISP is bad, then certainly paying more fore essentially nothing is far worse.

    --
    When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
    1. Re:Get rid of toll roads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Toll roads are probably the best analogy to ISPs now. You pay a variable price for different speeds, and the construction cost is covered also by taxpayers or charging the suppliers more. Pay more, drive faster. Certainly seems to work that way with the toll lanes in CA (ignore posted speed: minimum speed in the toll/HOV lane is 80, and 100 is common. With stopped traffic on the rest of the road because no "public" lanes can be added. Once upon a time, there were "nomeklatura lanes" in Moscow - is this the new version of that?

    2. Re:Get rid of toll roads by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Many Toll Roads are built with the rationale that of you pay the toll, then you can travel faster than the rest of the schmucks.

      A prime example of Austin, TX with a toll road with prices that vari with the traffic. Presumably, it's worth more to go faster.

      Of course the reality is they fucked it up and people end up spending$5 to go a few miles just as slow as everyone else.

      So if paying more at BK, or your ISP is bad, then certainly paying more fore essentially nothing is far worse.

      On a completely different note, those Texas toll roads are a scam. I've never been to Texas, yet they insist I owe them for driving on their toll road, and they can provide no proof that I've been there.

    3. Re:Get rid of toll roads by Duhavid · · Score: 1

      In terms of purchasing different levels of services ( line speed ) sure, it seems an OK analogy.

      If you try to argue that paid prioritization is OK based on this, I would disagree.
      The internet is a system where people paid to enter/exit. Vendors pay to enter to deliver their goods, customers paid to request and receive these goods ( exiting ).

      Paid Prioritization is where the vendor I ordered goods from is delayed in delivering the goods I ordered, despite the fact that road speeds would support earlier delivery, in order to afford my exit toll manager the ability to charge not only me, but the vendor a toll, for the same delivery.

      If some guy where to stand on a road with a gun and demand tolls based on access, he would be headed for jail.
      "they own the pipes" is not convincing, I am paying for the use of the pipes, the bits are mine, dont touch them.

      --
      emt 377 emt 4
  54. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And "there voice"

  55. Public property by Comboman · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How many Slashdot sysadmins would be fine with a competitor's engineer messing with the fiber runs in your data center...

    But that's the point; utility poles aren't on the property of the ISP. They are on municipal property (or private property with municipal easements) and the municipality has every right to regulate how they are maintained and who can use them. In many places, the poles were originally installed by the electrical utility and telcos and cable companies are just free-riders.

    --
    Support Right To Repair Legislation.
    1. Re:Public property by cmseagle · · Score: 1

      Fair enough. How many Slashdot sysadmins would be fine with a competitor's engineer messing with their fiber runs in a colo center? Who wouldn't take the option of being paid to do the work yourself with a few weeks notice?

    2. Re:Public property by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I already deal with this. The answer is I don't give 2 fucks because I don't get blamed if they screw it up. You're stuck in that conservative mindset that they are "your" cables. You don't own em, I don't own em, so it makes no difference what happens to them as long as you keep your job.

  56. Re:If you want a Coke with that, we'll superspeed by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

    If you're absolutely sure you don't want a Coke, just wait in line a bit longer.

    That may actually be more brilliant than what they actually did. You can have your burger right now if you order a full value meal and supersize it. If you don't supersize it, you have to wait, and if you just get the sandwich, GFL. (The rest of the setup, including no special fees for chicken sandwiches, is still spot on.)

    --
    "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  57. Re: Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    no its not, they don't have to pay for real estate for more seats and make drive -thru optimized locations, with less seating, lower cost ...

    net neutrality would be like forcing every BK to have the same amount of seats inside and drive-thru capactiy regardless the location

  58. Re:Using politics as marketing by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 2

    Destroy the free market that never existed?

    --
    #DeleteFacebook
  59. Coca-Cola sponsored lane by lavalyn · · Score: 1

    Not a big fan of this commercial, but only because I don't see an issue with paying for a bigger pipe. I think it's fair that I pay more for higher raw throughput for multiple streaming devices than my neighbour that only streams through one TV.

    But add a "Fast Lane, sponsored by Coca-Cola" to the mix, where Burger King can push you to buy Coca-Cola instead of Pepsi, because Coca-Cola bid higher than Pepsi for prioritization privileges, and the real problem with repealing NN becomes apparent.

    --
    Doing the Right Thing should not be preempted by making a buck.
    1. Re:Coca-Cola sponsored lane by jittles · · Score: 3, Informative

      Not a big fan of this commercial, but only because I don't see an issue with paying for a bigger pipe. I think it's fair that I pay more for higher raw throughput for multiple streaming devices than my neighbour that only streams through one TV.

      But add a "Fast Lane, sponsored by Coca-Cola" to the mix, where Burger King can push you to buy Coca-Cola instead of Pepsi, because Coca-Cola bid higher than Pepsi for prioritization privileges, and the real problem with repealing NN becomes apparent.

      Did you miss the part about the chicken? If you bought a chicken sandwich, it was instant. If you paid for extra speed on the whopper, it was instant. If you did not, they had your sandwich, weren't doing anything else (your pipe was empty), but they just didn't fill the capacity of their pipe.

  60. Premium pricing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is there a lane for getting my order right? I'll pay a premium for that. Actually, BK gets it right more often than Checkers. With Checkers it's 2-3 times through the drive through.

  61. fucking stopid by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Beau, Did msmash's strapon go too deep this time??
    u sick fucktard.
    How the hell is this news for nerds?
    stupid dick head. I, We come here for technical shit, not this convoluted piece of shit.
    Do you actually film, tape, record, capture the twisted sexual acts you commit? I mean when getting on ur knees do u actually focus on the point of penetration? Do u and msmash practice putting out cigars on your forearms while watching these "home movies" in a state of un-healthy arousal?
    Hmm inquiring minds. NOT

  62. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by nasch · · Score: 1

    I'd say revenue by ZIP code would be another extremely meaningful way.

  63. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by Bootsy+Collins · · Score: 1

    Meanwhile, I just decided I'm *more* likely to go there.

  64. Bad analogy by Solandri · · Score: 1

    It's a really bad analogy because when you're buying fast food, you're paying not just for food, but also for the speed at which it'll be prepared. In that regard, opting to pay extra to get your burger faster is pretty much the whole point for the fast food industry existing. People seeing net neutrality portrayed in this manner might conclude it's not such a bad thing.

    The problem that net neutrality tries to address is that the customer has already paid for a certain level of service. You've paid for 100 Mbps, and the ISP should be required to deliver it to the best of its ability. Period. There should be no fast lanes because what specific site data the customer wants included in their 100 Mbps is none of the ISP's business. By throttling Netflix, the ISP is defrauding the customer by not delivering the 100 Mbps the customer paid for.

    The correct fast food analogy to internet fast lanes is that if you order a cheeseburger, you will have to wait longer for it to be prepared than if you ordered a hamburger. Because the dairy farm has not paid Burger King a fee for selling the slice of cheese, the restaurant is deliberately making it more inconvenient for customers ordering dairy products. This makes clear what the ISPs are trying to do - extorting suppliers by delaying delivery of something the customer has already paid for.

  65. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by JackieBrown · · Score: 1

    I think he thinks these companies are trying to get in the spotlight.

    Chick-fil-A you can try to make that case since the owner dared to voice his opinion during an interview but that's only fair if you hold all the companies that came out in favor of gay marriage as just as agenda oriented.

    Hobby Lobby is in a different situation as they were not trying to hit the radar. A bunch of people started protesting and making allot of noise even though Hobby Lobby did actually pay for many forms of birth control. Unfortunately with that protest crowd it's give us all for free or you might as well as give us nothing.

  66. Re:If you want a Coke with that, we'll superspeed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
  67. So What? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Your criticisms of the BK commercial totally miss the point.

    This ad is reaching people who either didn't care about NN, or didn't understand it. It's a great ad because it reaches people. That's all it needs to do!

    If a person is reached and wants to learn more, they'll find out more. Jeez, the ad even includes a link at the end to encourage that behavior. You are complaining about the fine points of NN, or ads, or BK, or services versus products. In so doing you produce a word salad that the targets for this ad will tune out, so your message gets lost completely.

    So many tech people do this and it's dumb. First you engage, then you educate. But you have to make people care first.

    This ad makes people realize that they already have something that is valuable, and they could lose it. They never even thought in those terms before. Now they think, "the Big Bad FCC is taking away my internet!" Sure it's not accurate, but the point isn't accuracy, it's motivation. Accuracy can come later. And what about those citizens who never understand the issue accurately? They still support NN, because they understand it as a Good Thing.

  68. Perhaps BK should solve how to make a BURGER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...Rather than a laxative. Maybe then they can tackle issues outside their area of expertise.

    1. Re:Perhaps BK should solve how to make a BURGER by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's a fast food eatery. If you want a real burger, then go to a real restaurant.

  69. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by Nidi62 · · Score: 1

    Hobby Lobby is in a different situation as they were not trying to hit the radar. A bunch of people started protesting and making allot of noise even though Hobby Lobby did actually pay for many forms of birth control. Unfortunately with that protest crowd it's give us all for free or you might as well as give us nothing.

    I'm angry with Hobby Lobby more due to the fact that they decorated their headquarters with artifacts stolen from Iraq during the Iraq War/ISIS.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil
  70. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  71. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by SharpFang · · Score: 1

    Only with uniform prices. Say, revenue of McDonalds from Russia doesn't reflect their popularity there, because if they charged the same prices as in USA, they'd be without customers.

    --
    45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
  72. Re:Using politics as marketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I guess I have a new reason to not eat at Burger King. I really hate it when companies use serious political issues as a marketing strategy. If they want to make a statement on how Net Nutrality affects their business, I have no problem with that, but to use it as a corny ad campaign just really turns me off. They see that most people favor some kind of Net Nutrality witch is just used as another demographic for marketing.

    This is not marketing, it's a Public Service Announcement, making Net Neutrality somewhat understandable to the average person.

  73. Re: Nonsense by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    This problem was created by local governments agreeing to monopoly conditions to get free equipment for local access shows and channels in the early cable tv days.
    This continued in the early internet days- free infrastructure for schools or town in return for a local monopoly.
    Federal oversight in those days would have fixed the problem by now.
    The problem now is that the big ISP lobby is huge, rich and paying a lot to get rid of net neutrality.
    And many people are not looking at the actual problem but just believing the corporate line that "repealing net neutrality will increase competition."
    How?
    How does ensuring that the same conditions that have existed since the Internet began remain will create a change???
    Insanity can be defined as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

  74. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by scottrocket · · Score: 1

    Hobby Lobby is in a different situation as they were not trying to hit the radar. A bunch of people started protesting and making allot of noise even though Hobby Lobby did actually pay for many forms of birth control. Unfortunately with that protest crowd it's give us all for free or you might as well as give us nothing.

    I'm angry with Hobby Lobby more due to the fact that they decorated their headquarters with artifacts stolen from Iraq during the Iraq War/ISIS.

    If what you say is true, then those artifacts are likely safer at Hobby Lobby than they are in Iraq. Were I an Iraqi who cared about my history, I might even be happy about this.

  75. Net Neutrality is a distraction.. by Phasedshift · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Net Neutrality as it was written is pointless and is anything but what it should be. I really wish people would realize that - it doesn't fix the problem and makes it seem like the issue is private companies running amok, instead of the real issue being seen: there is extremely little competition in the last mile, especially in rural areas. This has to do with what others mentioned - access to poles, monopolies from both cities and large multi-tenant units, etc. This isn't about traffic prioritization, it's about lack of competition due to regulations/laws/case law.

    Further, the law itself did absolutely nothing in making sure that companies can't effectively "prioritize" traffic anyway, see #1 below.

    1. Only artificially limiting bandwidth via rate shaping, etc is covered by the old law. Technical "limitations" are not. You can't require an ISP to setup more peering points, increase transit, etc. ISP's use transit (generic traffic) and peering (sending traffic to a specific company.) Most major companies like to peer since it is generally far, far cheaper than paying for transit. If Comcast is peering with Netflix and only has a 100 mbps connection to them, but the actual bandwidth required from Netflix should be more like 1000 mbps without causing slowdowns, they can simply not facilitate increasing that. It costs money (to Comcast and Netflix) to increase that bandwidth between each other, so who pays for it, especially if that utilization is heavily one-sided? Same scenario will happen, but, a different "cause".

    2. Having something labeled "Net neutrality" does not make it so. The only reason people haven't left the incumbent carriers in droves is because they have no other choice in many areas. You remove the barriers to competition and it will fix this situation without having the federal government needing to pass pointless laws.

    3. Net Neutrality was passed in 2015, how many years prior did the internet exist and the world did end...

    1. Re:Net Neutrality is a distraction.. by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

      monopolies from both cities and large multi-tenant units

      Cities have been prohibited from issuing exclusive franchises for more than twenty years now. No such franchises still exist.

      "Multi-tenant units" are private companies that are free to make whatever contractual agreements they wish, and since they own the place you live they get to say what modifications may be made to the building, including drilling holes for wires. That's just one reason why living in such a place sucks.

    2. Re:Net Neutrality is a distraction.. by Phasedshift · · Score: 1

      Exclusive franchise agreements are illegal, however, many cities have terms that are so restrictive to other companies that it makes it effectively exclusive by providing a huge barrier to entry. See:
      https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/pgak38/the-fcc-cant-help-cities-trapped-by-predatory-internet-deals-with-big-telecom

  76. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Uh but you're not, so how the fuck would you know how an Iraqi would feel? If I were x, I would feel y is just a way to impose your post hoc rationalization on others you smug piece of shit. Cuz that's just like, your opinion man.

  77. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by nasch · · Score: 1

    The question was how to measure "where a chain has concentrated its business" not "popularity". Popularity could be one way to look at that question, but it is not the only one.

  78. Burger King's Tax Inversion = Lifetime Boycott by curmudgeon99 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The moment Burger King announced they were executing a Tax Inversion with the Canadian company Tim Horton's, they went from my favorite fast food to the subject of a lifetime boycott of their business by myself. By doing the inversion, they externalized their costs on the American tax payers. I have not set foot in one of their restaurants since then. Never again will I do so. They have the right to run their business how they see fit and I have the right to vote with my feet.

    1. Re:Burger King's Tax Inversion = Lifetime Boycott by ebvwfbw · · Score: 1

      So what? Can't get O-rings at McDonalds. They also don't have the nice tasty pies... and so forth. All the stuff I shouldn't be eating anymore.

      If you have a wife, tell her you're getting your veggies when you buy O-Rings. She'll get a good laugh.

  79. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by Darinbob · · Score: 2

    In the 1880's, NCR added extra health and safety features for the workers, like chairs, and an on-site doctor to deal with accidents. Almost no other company did this. But this wasn't done because of any social agenda or liberal leanings, instead the president felt that happier and healthier workers were better workers. It's an old idea that still applies.

  80. Re:NN is BAD, more competition will solve all issu by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

    ISPs are at the mercy of what Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon charge them, since those guys own the pipes needed for broadband.

    I'm sorry, but no ISP doing real business resells Comcast or AT&T. It's just too expensive and limiting. They get a pipe from a real backbone provider. Even the major non-cable, non-telco ISP in my town goes through a commercial provider and doesn't just resell Comcast.

    The last mile in each city and town was installed over many decades with the encouragement and subsidy from local governments, waiving complicated rules and rights and way.

    You have no clue what the franchise process used to be like, do you? I can tell you for a fact there was no waiving of complicated rules or rights of way. Before the states co-opted the franchise process, the cities could put whatever kinds of rules they wanted into a franchise agreement.

    Even Google, with all its resources, has pretty much given up trying to compete in the local ISP market.

    And that's now, where the "complicated rules and rights of way" aren't complicated anymore. Why did they give up? It cost too much.

  81. Re:NN is BAD, more competition will solve all issu by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

    this isnt about FCC - its about local and state regs that prevent non incumbents from pulling new cable on existing poles.

    And federal law pre-empts any such state or local law by requiring municipalities to issue second, third or even fourth franchises on the same basis as the first, and none of them can be exclusive. If the city lets the incumbent on a pole as part of the franchise, it has to let the newbie on the pole when it issues the franchise to them.

  82. Re: Nonsense by Obfuscant · · Score: 1

    The number one place that there are issues is utility poles.

    Someone should invent a wireless internet delivery system ... oh wait.

    One touch make ready is a regulation that allows a new players to move aside existing cables to make room for their own on the condition that they do not harm existing cables or interfere with the competitor's service.

    Prove that I damaged your cable when I moved it. It was corroded and fell apart all on its own. Your installer didn't tighten that connection so it came loose when I moved the box. That wedding ring break in your hardline was there before I even started. And, of course, no incumbent would sue just because they could use it as a delaying tactic.

    Letting people move other people's stuff is not a good idea. Changing the law to require faster turnaround is the correct answer.

  83. rofl by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    what the fuck are you doing in that country that fast food companies need to defend the democracy for you....
    Srsly W Bush wasn't this fool like this Orange in charge.

  84. Most of you don't even understand this issue... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Back in the early days, when the Internet as we know it was young, ISPs agreed to not charge transit and peering fees to each other because each ISP was bringing a large number of customers to the table, and each ISP's customer base wanted access to other customers and services on other ISP's networks. So in general it was win-win for ISPs to voluntarily do this, because they were all on equal footing and had the same revenue/cost model. Only they could be in the big internet exchanges, everyone else had to connect through one of them. This is net neutrality... the agreement by the major ISPs not to charge each other for peering and transit. E.g. if I'm AT&T and you CenturyLink, we agree not to charge each other for traffic because it pretty much benefits us and our customers equally and any charges/payments to each other would probably be a wash, anyway.

    Well, eventually comes along Google and other large internet companies. They pay their way into the internet exchanges, bring their own links to their giant data centers with them. As we all know, originally and currently, the carriers let them do this under pretty much the same terms as other carriers. However, over the years as they have grown, the cost model has gotten quite different. The equation is rather lopsided. Google, et al. consume a massive amount of bandwidth, and only bring their own services to the table. They don't bring anybody to my network who wants my services or my own customer's services. Obviously this relationship is *not* the same as what I have with the other carriers.

    So let's say I'm a big carrier and I Google has been peering with me. As mentioned, all they bring is themselves, not a bunch of other people and businesses like the other carriers do. They continue to use more and more bandwidth, costing me more and more money.

    Now, I realize this is problematic for me, and I want Google to pay for their bandwidth the same as any other customer has to pay for bandwidth, because that's what they are. Google isn't any different than Joe Shmoe's Website Consulting in anything other than the amount of bandwidth they use.

    But if I mention that Google isn't a carrier, and I want to charge them the same as all my other business customers, they run around and scream "net neutrality" as if they weren't the ones who changed how the equation works.

    It's funny to watch people demand that Google be allowed an essentially free internet connection at some of the highest available speeds on the planet while they have to pay to get a measly 100 Mbit.

  85. Great parady-metaphor by colonel+spalding · · Score: 1

    I wasn't confused at all. It makes a good case-example of Net Neutrality via Burger orders.

  86. Re: So who advertises on Fox News Hannity? by lsatenstein · · Score: 1

    Up here in Quebec (Montreal), BK is renovating their stores, are able to provide a good wopper trio quickly, in a competitive price (compared to McD), and it can be tailored to your liking.

    Five can dine at BK for what it costs to dine at McD.

    Both claim their hamburgers are made of beef and no filler.

    The McD quarter pounder used to be 4 oz of beef and then the bun and the dressing,
    Today it seems to be a total weight of 4 ounces, including the dressing and the bread. Smaller and more expensive McD vs BK when you have to feed 5 kids and two adults

    --
    Leslie Satenstein Montreal Quebec Canada