Obama speaks out in favor of Net Neutrality; Ted Cruz likens it to "Obamacare"

Are you sure? Once these throttling deals are in place with the largest service providers and consumers are acclimated to seeing their internet service as if it is cable or DirectTV, are you sure you wouldn't join the club?

One small ISP can't risk the exposure of trying to change consumer behavior in this way. But a few large monopsonies can. And once that door is open, then what?

 

Millions of idiots just like Ted Cruz. I can't even argue that point. In fact the majority of voters are uninformed or don't understand issues. They just blindly vote down party lines.

 

No, this is people demanding the same service we have historically gotten while the ISPs want to limit our ability to use the services we want so that they can make more money.

I like that my ISP doesn't have the right to decide FOR me which services run at a certain speed over the connection for which I pay. That is MY decision and I shouldn't be railroaded into changing service providers or having to dig through contracts to see which services are throttled.

 

I can't wait for Ted Cruz's next media interview. They better ask his dumbass to explain what he thinks Net Neutrality is.

 

What era in history do you live in where you don't think the internet is as necessary as the phone?

 

Why are you talking as if there's real competition and choice? If you run a small ISP you know better. The only way for a customer "not to put up" with something is to move to a competitor. If you only have access to a monopoly or a colluding duopoly, how does this happen?

In 2014, Comcast has reached a special achievement: it is the most hated company in America. There's a lot of people in this country that hate a lot of companies, but Comcast is the king of the heap. It is even more hated than the federal government. No joke.
http://www.dailydot.com/opinion/why-comcast-most-hated-company-america/

How did they do it? By doing their utmost to **** all their customers as hard as possible, and lobby/legislate themselves into monopolistic situations where their customers can't leave or have a very hard time doing so. On top of this, they are telling us they the have too much competition, and must merger with Time Warner.

But you are here to tell us, "hey, trust us, we wouldn't do anything that bad!" Look, I'll take you at your word that you're in this business, but seriously- how can you be in this business and say what you are saying?

 

Why fix something that is not broken? Big companies would buy their way to the fast lanes, while small companies would not be able to establish any kind of competition,

Just ask yourself, who would benefit from this change? Comcast spent $18 million in lobbying last year... 2nd to only the military industrial complex!

Finally... Tom Wheeler, former top man of the cable industries lobbying arm, was the recently appointed chair of the federal communications commissions.

See my point?

 

Seriously*10000000

I'm not very knowledgable on this aspect but I'm curious if other posters can chime in on how much of the interwebs infrastructure has been subsidized by the government.

 

Should be an interesting showdown. Clearly big money ISPs are pushing hard for change meanwhile I believe the general public is in favor of net neutrality but with these empty suits muddling the issue I'm worried stupid folks will be hoodwinked.

 

I bet if you asked these republicans in May the majority of them would be in favor of Net Neutrality, now that Obama has widely spoken for it they changed their mind. Classic sheep behavior. They will think whatever is fed them on Fox News and from conservative pundits.

 

Yeah, I bet those conservatives and libertarians would totally be all for more government regulation if Obama wasn't supporting it. They always support more government.

Why would you bother posting an assumption about people you don't know?

 

sounds like you do not understand what is taking place. basically, there are three sides to this argument:

1) turn internet into a public utility (what obama has proposed)
2) keep Net Neutrality in tact
3) remove Net Neutrality

i hope that helps.

 

The age that I need a phone to dial 911.

 

Also happens to be the age where emergency workers are backlogged because they're looking up your address on paper maps, communicating with telegraphs, and managing patients with paper files (this might actually be true, but I happen to know somebody trying to fix that).

And we ain't seen nothing yet.

http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-02/11/ibm-watson-medical-doctor

"Entertainment service." Try the world's largest repository of real-time knowledge---a corpus of data that is constantly saving and improving lives.

 

The irony of this position is that for all of their rants about the "sheeple media", Republicans are effectively cutting off their own alternatives by a diehard focus on partisan opposition.

It's ironic because the Internet is THE forum for divergent ideas from the "sheep", and people who oppose net neutrality will quickly realize CNBC can pay for fast lanes, but bobthebuilder.com can't---and looks like Bob will have to shut down if the traffic % down from waiting times can't make up for decreasing advertising revenues.

 

More toll roads -- everywhere toll roads!

 

Wow, had no idea there was people against net neutrality (besides ISP's). The ignorance of people in this country is astounding.

 

Because the FCC can and has taken action against them when they have tried in the past. The most famous of those being against Comcast which did indeed violate Net Neutrality. It went to the courts and the FCC lost because there are no actual laws in place. So in order to maintain the status quo that the FCC has done through essentially providing guidance the industry has followed under the idea they didn't want to piss of the FCC, they now need the laws.

The laws would only keep the internet and preserve the openness which has made it so great. Don't take that away. It would really suck for all of us.

 

I had no idea what net netruality was until I jumped in face first and started posting. I am for it now.