| Welcome to Perspectives. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| How the FCC Can Save the Open Internet; We should undo the Obama administration’s rules that regulate the web like a 1930s utility. | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Nov 21 2017, 08:12 PM (100 Views) | |
| clone | Nov 21 2017, 08:12 PM Post #1 |
|
Director @ Center for Advanced Memetic Warfare
|
How the FCC Can Save the Open Internet As millions flocked to the web for the first time in the 1990s, President Clinton and a Republican Congress decided “to preserve the vibrant and competitive free market that presently exists for the Internet.” In the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the government called for an internet “unfettered by Federal or State regulation.” The result of that fateful decision was the greatest free-market success story in history. Encouraged by light-touch regulation, private companies invested over $1.5 trillion in nearly two decades to build out American communications networks. Without having to ask anyone’s permission, innovators everywhere used the internet’s open platform to start companies that have transformed how billions of people live and work. But that changed in 2014. Just days after a poor midterm election result, President Obama publicly pressured the Federal Communications Commission to reject the longstanding consensus on a market-based approach to the internet. He instead urged the agency to impose upon internet service providers a creaky regulatory framework called “Title II,” which was designed in the 1930s to tame the Ma Bell telephone monopoly. A few months later, the FCC followed President Obama’s instructions on a party-line vote. I voted “no,” but the agency’s majority chose micromanagement over markets. LINK |
|
Only liberals can choose not to go down the road to widespread, systematic violence. | |
![]() |
|
| BuckFan | Nov 22 2017, 12:47 AM Post #2 |
|
There are not free markets on Internet access because there are huge barriers to entry for Internet access providers. Typically, like Ma Bell, only one set of wires runs to a house. So there is one provider for truly high speed internet. My neighborhood is a perfect example. We have one cable provider, Spectrum. They have a monopoly on internet access greater than 5 mbps. When there is truly competition and free markets for access than i will accept free markets for streaming. Until then, providers need to treat all content equally. That is truly an open and free Internet. |
![]() |
|
| clone | Nov 22 2017, 12:53 PM Post #3 |
|
Director @ Center for Advanced Memetic Warfare
|
The service providers aren’t any better than the tech giants. To hell with them both. Both greedy, pro censorship, anti consumer. We lose no matter which of them wins. |
|
Only liberals can choose not to go down the road to widespread, systematic violence. | |
![]() |
|
| Demagogue | Nov 22 2017, 12:57 PM Post #4 |
![]()
Administrator
|
Here is a link that will hopefully not have a pay wall in front of the article. https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-the-fcc-can-save-the-open-internet-1511281099?shareToken=stfce76b60cd1b419a95b8598eff24dd79&reflink=article_email_share |
| People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would do them harm. | |
![]() |
|
| clone | Nov 22 2017, 01:03 PM Post #5 |
|
Director @ Center for Advanced Memetic Warfare
|
Sorry about that....I was able to read the whole thing without the paywall coming up.... via the OP..... Encouraged by light-touch regulation, private companies invested over $1.5 trillion in nearly two decades to build out American communications networks. Without having to ask anyone’s permission, innovators everywhere used the internet’s open platform to start companies that have transformed how billions of people live and work. But that changed in 2014. Just days after a poor midterm election result, President Obama publicly pressured the Federal Communications Commission to reject the longstanding consensus on a market-based approach to the internet. He instead urged the agency to impose upon internet service providers a creaky regulatory framework called “Title II,” which was designed in the 1930s to tame the Ma Bell telephone monopoly. A few months later, the FCC followed President Obama’s instructions on a party-line vote. I voted “no,” but the agency’s majority chose micromanagement over markets. This burdensome regulation has failed consumers and businesses alike. In the two years after the FCC’s decision, broadband network investment dropped more than 5.6%—the first time a decline has happened outside of a recession. If the current rules are left in place, millions of Americans who are on the wrong side of the digital divide would have to wait years to get more broadband. The effect has been particularly serious for smaller internet service providers. They don’t have the time, money or lawyers to cut through a thicket of complex rules. The Wireless Internet Service Providers Association, which represents small fixed wireless companies that generally operate in rural America, found that more than 80% of its members “incurred additional expense in complying with the Title II rules, had delayed or reduced network expansion, had delayed or reduced services and had allocated budget to comply with the rules.” They aren’t alone. Other small companies have told the FCC that these regulations have forced them to cancel, delay or curtail upgrades to their fiber networks. |
|
Only liberals can choose not to go down the road to widespread, systematic violence. | |
![]() |
|
| clone | Nov 22 2017, 01:26 PM Post #6 |
|
Director @ Center for Advanced Memetic Warfare
|
more.... The uncertainty surrounding the FCC’s onerous rules has also slowed the introduction of new services. One major company reported that it put on hold a project to build out its out-of-home Wi-Fi network partly because it wasn’t sure if the FCC would approve of its business model. Nineteen municipal internet service providers—that is, city-owned nonprofits—told the this past May that they “often delay or hold off from rolling out a new feature or service because we cannot afford to deal with a potential complaint and enforcement action.” This is why I’m proposing today that my colleagues at the Federal Communications Commission repeal President Obama’s heavy-handed internet regulations. Instead the FCC simply would require internet service providers to be transparent so that consumers can buy the plan that’s best for them. And entrepreneurs and other small businesses would have the technical information they need to innovate. The Federal Trade Commission would police ISPs, protect consumers and promote competition, just as it did before 2015. Instead of being flyspecked by lawyers and bureaucrats, the internet would once again thrive under engineers and entrepreneurs. |
|
Only liberals can choose not to go down the road to widespread, systematic violence. | |
![]() |
|
| Demagogue | Nov 22 2017, 01:34 PM Post #7 |
![]()
Administrator
|
Here is a counter opinion put forth by Popular Mechanics. http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/infrastructure/a13817671/fcc-net-neutrality-full-repeal-2017/
There is merit to both arguments. We probably do need net neutrality regulations. It probably should not be done via calling ISP's a common carrier and using the “Title II” framework. |
| People sleep peacefully in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to visit violence on those who would do them harm. | |
![]() |
|
| clone | Nov 22 2017, 01:44 PM Post #8 |
|
Director @ Center for Advanced Memetic Warfare
|
I've been following Ajit Pai for quite a while...in spite him being a McConnell blessed Obama appointee he does appear to be a competitive free market anti-truster and an advocate for less regulation.... |
|
Only liberals can choose not to go down the road to widespread, systematic violence. | |
![]() |
|
| clone | Nov 22 2017, 01:47 PM Post #9 |
|
Director @ Center for Advanced Memetic Warfare
|
[twitter=Cernovich/status/933218963768537088] |
|
Only liberals can choose not to go down the road to widespread, systematic violence. | |
![]() |
|
| _g R_ | Nov 22 2017, 01:53 PM Post #10 |
|
It's a fine line between suppressing information and not losing billions in advertising revenue. I suspect any changes will hardly be noticeable immediately. |
| The real leftists are the silenced majority, the sleeping giant. | |
![]() |
|
| clone | Nov 22 2017, 04:19 PM Post #11 |
|
Director @ Center for Advanced Memetic Warfare
|
|
|
Only liberals can choose not to go down the road to widespread, systematic violence. | |
![]() |
|
| 1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous) | |
| « Previous Topic · UnitedStates.com DOMESTIC U.S. news · Next Topic » |







8:56 PM Jul 10