Net Neutrality

[jkjsooner]

What do you guys think will be the consequences of the recent net neutrality ruling?

I'm concerned because I have Time Warner for Internet (my only option other than slower DSL) and have DirecTv for television. DirecTv has two different methods to provide video on demand. The first is mass downloads via satellite of the video to DVR where the user just need to pay for access to the movie on the DVR. The second is to use the user's Internet connection to download the movies.

I don't see any reason Time Warner won't block this second method since DirecTv is a direct competitor. They say they won't but does anyone really believe them? My experience with cable companies doesn't lead me to have a lot of faith/trust in them.

Will they block/slow Hulu, Netflix, etc? Could this possibly lead to a resurgence of physical DVD/Blu-ray discs?

Will ISP's force websites to pay for access?


I don't understand the law but I can't understand why your broadband connection is not considered "common carrier".



I put this in this forum because this ultimately entails a lot of political debates and specifically a debate about the role of government and private industry. (In my eyes this is an example where corporations pose a lot more threat than government - especially as long as they have a virtual monopoly in a lot of areas.)

[jkjsooner]

No takers? I figured this would be interesting since it could impact us all.

One more possibility, the broadband companies could charge a premium for net-neutral services...

[yermom]

if the cable companies wanted to pull this, they should have done it a lot sooner.

if they muck with it too much people will be out for blood at this point

[SoonerBBall]

if the cable companies wanted to pull this, they should have done it a lot sooner.

if they muck with it too much people will be out for blood at this point

Disagree. If this stands they will roll out their devious, anti-competitive changes slowly and carefully. We won't see the full effect of the ruling for a decade, but it will be crippling.

I hope the FCC gets it stuff together and either classifies internet providers as common carriers (best option) or breaks the monopoly power of content providers that also own the delivery mechanism.

[jkjsooner]

if the cable companies wanted to pull this, they should have done it a lot sooner.

if they muck with it too much people will be out for blood at this point

You may be right and my concerns are overblown. However, I can think of several reasons why they wouldn't have done this.

1. Going back 10-15 years ago, the cable companies wouldn't have wanted to introduce this just as they were entering the ISP market. I don't think the timing would have been right.

2. It's only been the last few years where video over the Internet has become widespread enough to threaten the cable companies. Five or six years ago most of us watched our content either through the cable company's offering (normal channels, on demand, etc.), satellite offerings that had no dependency on the Internet, or through DVD. While the last two do compete with cable offerings, there isn't anything the cable company can do about it.

3. FCC had rules against this before they were struck down.

4. Comcast has to tread lightly as their merger with NBC would not have gone through unless they agreed not to do these things. However, their agreement was only for seven years.

I'd bet that they won't block services altogether because that will be obvious to the end user. They may slow them down so much that it becomes extremely tedious for the end user.