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This “zero rating” was the bone of contention in the big fight against Facebook’s Free Basics in India, where this sort of price discrimination for data was eve

• ionised 10y ago
  > the price of net neutrality is eternal protest? It's not enough to win net neutrality. Like everything else worth fighting for, you have to remain vigilant and watchful in order to defend it.
• snsr 10y ago
  > … the price of net neutrality is eternal protest? When shills like Ajit Pai are in power at the FCC, yes.
• Someone1234 10y ago
  Eternal or until Internet is correctly reclassified as a public utility like roads, bridges, and other vital infrastructure. Then the government can pick up responsibility for the last mile, and you can buy internet service from one of a two dozen different providers (who utilise and pay rent on the government's last mile cabling). That's where we'll wind up eventually. Government will put fiber into every home, then cable companies and internet companies will use that fiber and pay a fee to the government while charging end users.
  • bjelkeman-again 10y ago
    This is similar to what we have in many urban areas in Sweden. It works really well. The local government runs the local fibre loop, just as it runs roads, piped water, electricity, sewage, and other services too, like schools and hospitals etc. One key thing is that the local government has local taxation rights to be able match the demand. Water, fibre, electricity is run on fees, and things like schools, roads and hospitals are run on taxes.
  • mattnewton 10y ago
    Well then, we have a lot of work ahead of us, because I don't see how that is going to happen on the watch of the major telecom companies.
  • germinalphrase 10y ago
    Other than political will - is there anything preventing local municipalities from doing this right now?
    • untog 10y ago
      IIRC some have, much to the ire of local telcos.
    • zhengyi13 10y ago
      Large incumbents filing strategic anti-competitive lawsuits. "If you can't innovate, litigate!"
    • cr0sh 10y ago
      Yeah - all the local muni's (and other local govt) who subscribe to this model: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legislative_Exchange_Council https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Legislative_Exchange_...
    • jellicle 10y ago
      What has happened to many municipalities that tried is that the incumbent telcos went to the state legislature and had laws passed making it illegal for cities to run their own telecom infrastructure. Basically, the political will has to be present at the city AND state level for this to happen. And that turns out to be a small set.
    • sfifs 10y ago
      regulatory capture. The deep pocketed telecos went to state political leaders and had laws passed to prevent/restrict these in many cases
  • rch 10y ago
    For a lot of places in the U.S. and certainly parts of India, last mile broadband should stay remain the purview of local providers (co-ops, municipalities, etc.), and might be wireless. For agricultural applications, for example, it makes no sense to run fiber to the home just to run it back out with a patchwork of low-quality repeaters. Other places (there's an example from Spain) it makes sense for a neighborhood to deploy a wireless mesh network. -- I work with broadband data in the U.S. for economic development purposes.