Can someone explain to me the pros and cons of the today's FCC net neutrality decision? I'm kinda fuzzed about it.
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Well... in theory it looks good on paper. Essentially from what I've pieced together this will disallow internet service providers from "forcing" certain websites to pay kickbacks for better service. To be honest I haven't followed it very closely, but I just do not think more government oversight is going to be good...
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The FCC ruled that internet service is a telecommunications service and and that those who provide it are common carriers, although they are not going to apply the full spectrum of public utility regulations.
What that means is that they can't treat different customers data differently and have to be open and transparent in how they do it. This means that Verizon can't charge you or Netflix extra to have better (or to avoid worse) speeds and connection reliability then Redbox Instant.
Ars Technica has an alright article on the decision. If you're still confused I can dig up an even less technical gouge.
This is exactly the sort of place regulation is needed and not having it is part of why we pay so much for such crappy internet in the US.
Could be worse. You could be here in Australia. Your average download speed is pretty much double ours, and current projections have us continuing to fall further behind since the fancy new fiber to the home national broadband network that we were meant to be getting was gutted and turned into something far less useful, as well as being likely to need upgrading in a few years instead of the much longer life the original plan would have had.
As it stands at the moment, we're meant to be getting Netflix here soon, which I would be excited about... except that I highly doubt my internet connection will be able to stream it at a reasonable quality. The only people who can really use it well are those who either already got the NBN before it got gutted, already lived in an area with an existing fiber network run by TransACT (mostly newer, very pricey suburbs), or were willing to pay to get fiber put in to their home themselves. Then they wonder why Australians pirate so much... because we either don't get it here for months after it's released in the US, we can get it but only through one cable company that charges extortionate rates for it, or we can stream it through one of the services but can't get a decent enough connection to do so. Everyone I know that pirates says the same thing: Give us a way to get the content in a reasonable time frame, at a decent quality, without paying a small fortune for it, and we'll gladly pay for it. Even with the small sample size of people I know, you can see the effect with something like Spotify. My mates used to pirate music all the time. When premium music streaming services hit the market, all but one of them paid for premium subscriptions to one of the services.
All of that aside, I'm very glad to hear net neutrality is now protected at least partially with public utility regulations. Letting that go would have set a very bad precedent.
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Well... in theory it looks good on paper. Essentially from what I've pieced together this will disallow internet service providers from "forcing" certain websites to pay kickbacks for better service. To be honest I haven't followed it very closely, but I just do not think more government oversight is going to be good...
Generally I would agree that it would be best to keep the govt out but I feel the telecommunications companies left the FCC no choice. Honestly if the telecommunications companies were not openly hostile to any form of competition this could have been avoided. Not only the lack of competition but the telecommunications companies were chomping at the bit to throw their weight around as well just asking for this type action. I don't think they have anyone but themselves to blame.
Hopefully this means a future with more options for broadband for Americans and to get some competitive rates as well. I'm sure alot of internet based companies are going to get a good nights sleep without having to worry about a shakedown at every contract meeting.