OT: Net Neutrality Petition

DrLumen wrote on 3/29/2007, 5:57 PM

Woohoo, my first OT...

Anyway, there is a petition up in support of net neutrality. In short, they will lobby congress to prevent the ISP's from getting a foothold in bundling website services like the cable companies do with Cable TV. An example would be like, "You get un-throttled access to joebob.com but if you want access to iTunes, the web package that allows un-throttled access to iTunes will cost $15 more per month. Package subject to change without notice."

http://www.futureofmusic.org/rockthenet/index.cfm

I would hope all here would sign it. Granted that the site is primarily from the standpoint of online music but the issue affects everyone. Especially if you have a website that contains a lot of video.

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Comments

Coursedesign wrote on 3/31/2007, 9:54 PM

were it not for the cable companies' competition for voice and data, the telcos would still only offer ISDN at $100/mo if you didn't like 28.8kbps through the voicepath.

Umm, no.

You're forgetting that government regulators forced the monopoly telcos to open their lines to 3rd party DSL providers at reasonable rates. These providers rented space in "cages" at telco COs and quickly got expertise and customer service going, and at low rates to boot because they were new and efficient, not having to deal with 18-20 year legally mandated equipment depreciation and seriously somnambulent employees who promise to come "between 8am and 6pm three weeks from Thursday" and then don't show.

Cable came much later.

I'm still getting on average one mailing per week from Verizon pushing their DSL, begging me to sign up at home. On top of that, they also call me at home, begging me to sign up. What they can't get into their heads is that my Verizon home phone line has had DSL for 7+ years, six months longer than Verizon has been offering this. How? Through a 3rd party DSL provider that is providing excellent service.

Of course Verizon knows about this, but the one hand that knows won't tell the other hand, so trees are felled every day to make pulp to make the letters and envelopes to fill my mailbox every week with new pleas to get the DSL I already have.

Sigh.

Cable is less reliable, and it uses shared lines, so usable speed decreases as the number of customers on your street increases.

rstein wrote on 3/31/2007, 10:21 PM

Well, actually, if you are familiar with what the incumbent phone companies did, they made life miserable for any company that leased CO space. Mysterious equipment failures and customer service snafus rooted in telco malfeasance pretty much killed of the competitive local carriers. Thus, today, there are the telcos, cable operators, and VOIP like Vonage and Skype. The rule requiring access to COs was, I believe, abolished.

There was a lot of horse trading between the local service telcos and regulators over long distance service (where there really was and remains competition - these are not "last mile" connections to the telco resources, however).

Bob.

Coursedesign wrote on 3/31/2007, 11:27 PM

Bob,

You are absolutely correct, but in the meantime it prevented the telcos from TOTALLY abusing their customers.

Perhaps you have read however how Verizon is now trying to kill Vonage in court with some unique patents for connecting (A) a VOIP phone line to (B) a regular landline (POTS). Who would have thought this was possible?

Must have taken Verizon many months, if not years, of advanced development.

In their legal counsel's office of course, no engineers involved.

In the end, we are back to having the almighty Phone Company ruling the country again, mightier than the government, just like in that 1970s movie, pretty cool it was too.

Steve Mann wrote on 4/1/2007, 10:37 AM

"This thread has brought the key issues of the debate to the forefront. AFAIK, the main beneficiaries of this largess are the telcos, not the cable companies."

If you disagree, then just watch all of the non-telco VOIP services (Vonage and Skype) turn to crap as soon as the "Net Neutrality" permits them to throttle the competition.

On the patent suit against Vonage - HAM radio operators have been connecting to the landlines since the '50s. Kind of hard for Verizon to re-invent it.

BTW - Google has been buying all the dark fiber for the past couple of years. Makes you wonder...