Re: Verizon Policy Statement on Net Neutrality

[Mike Hale <eyeronic.design () gmail com>]

"(3) when ISPs abuse their power, consumers can vote with their wallet
to another access points."

But they can't.  That's the point.  There is a massive dearth of
legitimate competition in the broadband space for the vast majority of
our population.  And it's that lack of competition that has allowed
Comcast et al to become the abusive bad actors they are.

We're not replacing the ISPs with the Government.  We're saying, in
effect, that in exchange for government monopolies allowing you to
become as big and profitable as you are, you now have to be slightly
less douchy than you have been.

On Fri, Feb 27, 2015 at 10:19 AM, Rob McEwen <rob () invaluement com> wrote:
> On 2/27/2015 12:49 PM, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
> > This case seems to prove that the telco/cable duopoly can't _always_ buy
> > the FCC rulings they desire; every now and then, the US govt surprises us
> > and actually represents the people.
>
>
> I know that ISPs are not perfect. Nothing is perfect. But what is incredible
> about this whole debate... is
>
> (1) how few people are actually suffering right now. If "net neutrality" had
> never made the news... and you went out and talked to 10,000 people, and
> forced them to sit down and write out their top 100 problems in life... and
> compiled all 1 million answers... I doubt internet connectivity problems or
> slow internet speeds would come up more than a few times... if even once!
>
> (2) meanwhile, we're such spoiled brats because... the bandwidth usage per
> second... AND the total number of users... AND the usage scenarios... AND
> the amount of hours of usage per day per person... has all SKYROCKETED in
> the past 15 years. It is AMAZING that the ISPs have kept pace. And this
> wasn't easy. My business is spam filtering and e-mail hosting... and in that
> related business... the usage levels per dollar of revenue (literally.. the
> # of MBs per dollar of revenue) is order of magnitudes higher than it was 15
> years ago... and, like others, I've had to do amazing things to keep things
> flowing well with the same basic $/user. (getting faster hardware wasn't
> even nearly enough) That wasn't easy.
>
> (3) when ISPs abuse their power, consumers can vote with their wallet to
> another access points. Yes, the choices are somewhat limited, but there are
> CHOICES (including 4G).. and, btw, there would have been MORE choices if the
> economy wasn't continuing to be anemic over the past several years. In
> contrast, when the government abuses their power, it is MUCH harder to move
> to another country. Plus, a bad ISP can only make someone's life so
> miserable. But an out-of-control government that has too much power can fine
> you, imprison you, IRS audit you, over-regulate you, legally (and illegally)
> spy on you, etc. (Just merely defining private networks as if they were
> "public airways"... is already a huge potential 4th amendment violation...
> why stop with cables moving data? Why not just make your hard drive... or
> your files in your filing cabnet part of their jurisdiction, too? Can they
> vote that in too? If you think not, tell me... what is stopping them that
> applies DIFFERENTLY from what they just did?)
>
> We're solving an almost non-existing problem.. by over-empowering an already
> out of control US government, with powers that we can't even begin to
> understand the extend of how they could be abused... to "fix" an industry
> that has done amazingly good things for consumers in recent years.
>
> --
> Rob McEwen



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