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This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I believe it's a net negative. Typically, ISPs in the US are either small and barely-profitable or large and with li
by sideband 10y ago
This is probably an unpopular opinion, but I believe it's a net negative.
Typically, ISPs in the US are either small and barely-profitable or large and with little appetite for business or technical innovation. The largest content providers already effectively share revenue with the largest ISPs through paid-peering and other arrangements. The smaller players, those that with success could grow and advance the market, are too small to justify the time of content providers that are also very worried about setting a dangerous precedent by extending the same deals to them that they extend to the AT&Ts and Comcasts.
Sure, as consumers we get additional protections, but I fear this mostly ensures that the industry as a whole stays put.
- baldfat 10y ago> I fear this mostly ensures that the industry as a whole stays put. That was 100% the point of Net Neutrality. It is so that the Internet doesn't change. Otherwise we will have a barrier of entry for all the small businesses. The Internet is a free market that needs to stay that way.
- ZenoArrow 10y agoSorry, I don't understand your point. The whole idea of net neutrality is that content creators can't pay ISPs for preferential treatment. This means that the large ISPs won't be receiving payouts from Netflix and suchlike, and therefore won't have an advantage in this area over smaller ISPs. If you really want to push for competition, there are other options. I don't know much about the situation in the US, but in the UK we have local-loop unbundling (LLU), which has proven to be a success in driving forward competition in the ISP market. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local-loop_unbundling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Local-loop_unbundling LLU helps smaller ISPs to compete with larger ISPs, as it allows them to build up their infrastructure without duplicating the work of laying cables. From the Wikipedia page I just linked to it appears that LLU is at least legal in the US, I'd be interested to learn about how popular it is.
- sideband 10y agoMy point in less words: The big guys (ISPs and content providers) all share revenue already and will continue to. This ruling shuts the little guys out of that action forever under the guise of consumer interest, rendering them permanently less competitive. That's bad.
- ZenoArrow 10y ago> "The big guys (ISPs and content providers) all share revenue already and will continue to." Ah, I see where you've got things mixed up now. Net neutrality stops the need for content providers to share revenue with ISPs. They have no financial interest in doing so, therefore the practice won't continue, it will stop.
- st3v3r 10y agoI don't want ISP "innovation". I want them to be a dumb pipe.