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I think one overlooked factor here is the next move for companies should Net Neutrality remain in force. Reading the Telco act that NN is based on, it allows th
by Sacho 9y ago
I think one overlooked factor here is the next move for companies should Net Neutrality remain in force. Reading the Telco act that NN is based on, it allows the FCC to decide which ISPs to be burdened with the regulation(the intention being that small ISPs aren't affected).
The next natural move for ISPs would be to lobby that their competitors are regulated but they are not. Since clearly ISPs have a strong lobby arm, wouldn't this be a great tool to use to essentially end any competition among ISPs? It'd be very much MAD - don't infringe on our turf or we will start a NN war with you.
I think that's one of the unintended consequences of NN.
They'll have even less incentive to improve their current offerings, which I don't think many people are satisfied by. Will the end goal here be to essentially nationalize ISPs?
- mattnewton 9y agoThere are so few competitors making it already that ISP’s clearly have sufficient tools to bully the smaller players out of buisiness currently, and there aren’t any tools for government officials to stop them. I don’t know enough about how infrastructure fairs when it is nationalized but besides that being a dirty word in American politics I’m not apposed on priciniple. My cursory understanding is that it seems to work for other nations, and since I already have to treat anything I send my ISP as sent to the NSA as well I’m not sure what I would be giving up.