Who here does not understand "net neutrality"? (1 Viewer)

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There is a staggering amount of confusion over the subject and I was curious if there were any misconceptions here. For the life of me I cannot figure out anyone would choose to not support this issue. It's like asking someone if they want to have the air pumped out of the atmosphere and then sold to them at outrageous prices and they get excited at the prospect of paying.

There are a couple doods I have been talking with that are against net neutrality, but are for what net neutrality accomplishes and it's equal parts frustrating and hilarious trying to have a conversation with them. It's not that I'm an expert by any means, but this is an issue that really affects us directly in so many ways. It seems like this gets shoved to the back burner because some have difficulty understanding the issue.
 
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It's proof that anything can be politicized no matter how good the legislation is. And its proof that any politician can be bought by lobbyists no matter how bad their side of the legislation is.
 
From what I have seen, oppositions of Net Neutrality seem to not be fond of the idea of government being involved.

MLU, what's your argument for net neutrality (I am no expert in the matter other than the very basic concepts). I don't think the internet should be restricted in any way, shape, or form (and it is my understanding that net neturality hopes to accomplish this.. by that I mean keeping it unrestricted).

Spit some knowledge!!!
 
I don't fully understand it. To be honest, I've never even heard of it until someone else posted about the legislation the other day. But generally I oppose restrictions on content and information of any kind, so I think I'm on the right side of this.
 
I don't fully understand it. To be honest, I've never even heard of it until someone else posted about the legislation the other day. But generally I oppose restrictions on content and information of any kind, so I think I'm on the right side of this.

Me, too. I have only heard the proposal mentioned absent the details. Someone fill us in, plz.
 
I think companies should be allowed to charge for internet by bandwidth usage if they choose, however I do not think they should be able to pick certain sites or services and charge more for them... if they are charging by bandwidth usage and it just happens to use more that is fine.


Will this law prohibit companies charging for bandwidth usage, or just keep them from charging based upon the content you are using the bandwidth for?
 
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I think companies should be allowed to charge for internet by bandwidth usage if they choose, however I do not think they should be able to pick certain sites or services and charge more for them... if they are charging by bandwidth usage and it just happens to use more that is fine.

I disagree. This is just a ploy to be able to stand pat on equipment while increasing profit. Whether you use 1 MB or 1 TB makes no difference to them as far as operational costs. What costs them is equipment upgrades that allow faster throughput to all customers. The big companies don't want to get the equipment to allow that. There is a reason why broadband is a joke in the US compared to the EU or Asia.
Don't get me started on rural broadband.
 
Id like a neutral explanation too please. Without too many adjectives or conclusions drawn ahead of time if that wouldnt be too much trouble.
 
Id like a neutral explanation too please. Without too many adjectives or conclusions drawn ahead of time if that wouldnt be too much trouble.
Lets say you have internet service with Cox.

But you also have an account with Netflix and want to stream movies from Netflix to your Xbox or your PC.

But Cox provides their own movie streaming service, and doesn't want to compete with Netflix.

Without any protections of Net Neutrality, Cox could restrict access to Netflix, or charge you more to access Netflix, thereby making you use their movie streaming service instead.

That's a thumbnail sketch of what Net Neutrality is trying to prevent.
 
Lets say you have internet service with Cox.

But you also have an account with Netflix and want to stream movies from Netflix to your Xbox or your PC.

But Cox provides their own movie streaming service, and doesn't want to compete with Netflix.

Without any protections of Net Neutrality, Cox could restrict access to Netflix, or charge you more to access Netflix, thereby making you use their movie streaming service instead.

That's a thumbnail sketch of what Net Neutrality is trying to prevent.

There's the other side of this as well. The content providers, Netflix, Hulu, Google, etc. don't have the cost associated with providing access. They continue to create bandwidth hogging apps that begin to overload the capacity of your providers network. The cost to constantly upgrade system capacity to deliver the "last mile" services of content is burdensome.

If your provider can't find a way to realize revenue, they stand pat you everyone complains of slow service. The content providers are getting a free ride and your provider is the bad guy.

Now, I don't believe that content should be blocked, but there has to be a method for your provider to create revenue to continue to provide the type of service we all expect.

Think of your cable service. You get some stuff for your base price and if you want premium services you pay more. I have no problem with the providers creating a tiered service or charging an excess bandwidth charge. And since I have a choice of broadband providers, the guy with the best mix of service, speed, content, and cost will prevail.
 
But what if you don't have a choice? What if you live in a rural area and there is pretty much one land line provider (the phone company) or sketchy satellite internet, and that's all you have? I try to understand it from both sides, but damn I am sick of always having to pay more for any little thing. Technology is the only thing in the world that gets better and cheaper at the same time, yet somebody always manages to find a way to cost me more.
 
There's the other side of this as well. The content providers, Netflix, Hulu, Google, etc. don't have the cost associated with providing access. They continue to create bandwidth hogging apps that begin to overload the capacity of your providers network. The cost to constantly upgrade system capacity to deliver the "last mile" services of content is burdensome.

If your provider can't find a way to realize revenue, they stand pat you everyone complains of slow service. The content providers are getting a free ride and your provider is the bad guy.

Now, I don't believe that content should be blocked, but there has to be a method for your provider to create revenue to continue to provide the type of service we all expect.

Think of your cable service. You get some stuff for your base price and if you want premium services you pay more. I have no problem with the providers creating a tiered service or charging an excess bandwidth charge. And since I have a choice of broadband providers, the guy with the best mix of service, speed, content, and cost will prevail.
They typically already provide tiered service based on speed. If you don't want to pay for a fast connection then youn't stream well and downloads take longer. The issue they seem to have is that users who pay for the highest bandwidth packages seem to want to use what they paid for to the fullest extent possible.
None of the big carriers (Cox, Charter, Time Warner) are hurting. They only started pulling these sorts of shennanigans once they started being content providers.
Oh, and look around the 'net to see what they do to people who try to start up a small ISP.
 
Lets say you have internet service with Cox.

But you also have an account with Netflix and want to stream movies from Netflix to your Xbox or your PC.

But Cox provides their own movie streaming service, and doesn't want to compete with Netflix.

Without any protections of Net Neutrality, Cox could restrict access to Netflix, or charge you more to access Netflix, thereby making you use their movie streaming service instead.

That's a thumbnail sketch of what Net Neutrality is trying to prevent.

Are those protections currently in place and net neutrality intends to ensure that they stay in place?
 
But what if you don't have a choice? What if you live in a rural area and there is pretty much one land line provider (the phone company) or sketchy satellite internet, and that's all you have? I try to understand it from both sides, but damn I am sick of always having to pay more for any little thing. Technology is the only thing in the world that gets better and cheaper at the same time, yet somebody always manages to find a way to cost me more.

The big companies don't want you as a customer. But when Congress allocates money for rural broadband initiatives they are the first ones in line with a hand out.
They don't want to build out infrastructure to rural customers (for cost reasons) but will shut down small ISPs that don't even compete with them.
 
I think companies should be allowed to charge for internet by bandwidth usage if they choose, however I do not think they should be able to pick certain sites or services and charge more for them... if they are charging by bandwidth usage and it just happens to use more that is fine.

Will this law prohibit companies charging for bandwidth usage, or just keep them from charging based upon the content you are using the bandwidth for?

Net neutrality specifically addresses the site/service/equipment discrimination in your first paragraph. Providers would still be free to cap accounts or charge based on total bandwidth usage.
 

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