Comcast is a very big ISP. Comcast executive V.P. David Cohen is quoted as saying recently that caps are going to be reinstated sometime within the next five years. He insisted that this is a much fairer system as those who use less bandwidth will pay less. Wanna bet? I still remember when cable t.v. was sold as television without commercials. How’s that working for you?
True, on one level apples and oranges. They maintain that this keeps the cost down. That’s code for ‘this makes us more money’. After all, why do teachers make what they do and NBA basketball players what they do?
"People who use more should pay more and people who use less should pay less," Cohen said. He then suggested that, should his company keep bandwidth limits at arm's length, everyone would pay more for their monthly subscriptions.” – PCWorld
That would be true if the resource involved were an un-renewable/limited physical resource. It isn’t. Like De Beers and diamonds, cable companies reap large benefits by limiting the resource. In the case of the ISP, not expanding the infrastructure is how that’s done. Google’s fiber cable projects prove my point.
I’m for truth in advertising. When cable companies create bottle necks (by not increasing the infrastructure) in order to charge more, despite the negative effects on the internet and commerce, someone has to call them on it.
It isn’t going to be the FCC with its wishy-washy decision not preventing ISPs from letting tech titans such as Netflix or Google pay for faster data speeds but would require that competing traffic move at “reasonable” speeds.
What is that “reasonable speed”? and who determines it? Why the ISPs, of course. “Wanted: Foxes to guard the chicken coop.” Who’s going to monitor “financial feasibility”? The FCC, because the government does that so well. What could go wrong?
The FCC? Completely neutral! “Wanted: Former cabal lobbyist for Chairman position.” Why do I get recurrent visions of Sergeant Schultz? What bothers me the most in all this? The net will suffer as well as the economy. Innovators will be stifled.
We all object when politicians want to centralize more and more power. We’d better be doing the same with telecommunications companies.
Forget the FCC. What’s their policy going to be? Doublethink:
“FCC officials speaking on background maintained that enforcing a reasonable standard of broadband performance will allow innovation and competition in online products and services and, by extension, lower prices for consumers. “The end result is this: no blocking will be the law of the land,” the FCC spokesman said.“This targets conduct that threatens an open Internet.” The FCC planned to look into whether some ISP practices are so unreasonable they can be banned, but said it does not intend a flat rule preventing some traffic to be prioritized.” – RawStory
Bye bye net neutrality.
Sources:
http://www.infopackets.com/news/9031/comcast-reinstate-bandwidth-caps-fair-or-foul
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/04/25/goodbye-net-neutrality-fccs-new-internet-rules-create-incentives-for-discrimination/