The internet is f#####. (but we can fix it)

[one...two...tree 2,762]

Here’s a simple truth: the internet has radically changed the world. Over the course of the past 20 years, the idea of networking all the world’s computers has gone from a research science pipe dream to a necessary condition of economic and social development, from government and university labs to kitchen tables and city streets. We are all travelers now, desperate souls searching for a signal to connect us all. It is awesome.

And we’re fvcking everything up.

Massive companies like AT&T and Comcast have spent the first two months of 2014 boldly announcing plans to close and control the internet through additional fees, pay-to-play schemes, and sheer brutal size — all while the legal rules designed to protect against these kinds of abuses were struck down in court for basically making too much sense. “Broadband providers represent a threat to internet openness,” concluded Judge David Tatel in Verizon’s case against the FCC’s Open Internet order, adding that the FCC had provided ample evidence of internet companies abusing their market power and had made “a rational connection between the facts found and the choices made.” Verizon argued strenuously, but had offered the court “no persuasive reason to question that judgement.”

Then Tatel cut the FCC off at the knees for making “a rather half-hearted argument” in support of its authority to properly police these threats and vacated the rules protecting the open internet, surprising observers on both sides of the industry and sending new FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler into a tailspin of empty promises seemingly designed to disappoint everyone.

“I expected the anti-blocking rule to be upheld,” National Cable and Telecommunications Association president and CEO Michael Powell told me after the ruling was issued. Powell was chairman of the FCC under George W. Bush; he issued the first no-blocking rules. “Judge Tatel basically said the Commission didn’t argue it properly.”

In the meantime, the companies that control the internet have continued down a dark path, free of any oversight or meaningful competition to check their behavior. In January, AT&T announced a new “sponsored data” plan that would dramatically alter the fierce one-click-away competition that’s thus far characterized the internet. Earlier this month, Comcast announced plans to merge with Time Warner Cable, creating an internet service behemoth that will serve 40 percent of Americans in 19 of the 20 biggest markets with virtually no rivals.

And after months of declining Netflix performance on Comcast’s network, the two companies announced a new “paid peering” arrangement on Sunday, which will see Netflix pay Comcast for better access to its customers, a capitulation Netflix has been trying to avoid for years. Paid peering arrangements are common among the network companies that connect the backbones of the internet, but consumer companies like Netflix have traditionally remained out of the fray — and since there’s no oversight or transparency into the terms of the deal, it’s impossible to know what kind of precedent it sets. Broadband industry insiders insist loudly that the deal is just business as usual, while outside observers are full of concerns about the loss of competition and the increasing power of consolidated network companies. Either way, it’s clear that Netflix has decided to take matters — and costs — into its own hands, instead of relying on rational policy to create an effective and fair marketplace.

In a perfect storm of corporate greed and broken government, the internet has gone from vibrant center of the new economy to burgeoning tool of economic control. Where America once had Rockefeller and Carnegie, it now has Comcast’s Brian Roberts, AT&T’s Randall Stephenson, and Verizon’s Lowell McAdam, robber barons for a new age of infrastructure monopoly built on fiber optics and kitty GIFs.

And the power of the new network-industrial complex is immense and unchecked, even by other giants: AT&T blocked Apple’s FaceTime and Google’s Hangouts video chat services for the preposterously silly reason that the apps were "preloaded" on each company’s phones instead of downloaded from an app store. Verizon and AT&T have each blocked the Google Wallet mobile payment system because they’re partners in the competing (and not very good) ISIS service. Comcast customers who stream video on their Xboxes using Microsoft’s services get charged against their data caps, but the Comcast service is tax-free.

We’re really, really fvcking this up.

But we can fix it, I swear. We just have to start telling each other the truth. Not the doublespeak bullshit of regulators and lobbyists, but the actual truth. Once we have the truth, we have the power — the power to demand better not only from our government, but from the companies that serve us as well. "This is a political fight," says Craig Aaron, president of the advocacy group Free Press. "When the internet speaks with a unified voice politicians rip their hair out."

http://www.theverge.com/2014/2/25/5431382/the-internet-is-######

[GandD 5,966]

Werd, I thought Capitalism and the free market was supposed to regulated prices through demand and competition. Now they're regulated by whatever your cable company feels like. Brand new customer? Here's everything for $1. Loyal customer for 5 years with no late payments? $1 billion dollars. Awww, wanna go to a competitor? Awww, there aren't any??????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HH75OT9vc8

[Darnell 8,478]

That's a lot o stuff.

Why can't the FCC simply cut off email routing from Nigerian Internet Cafes into the USA? Do that, and I think it's a positive step in the right direction.

Edited February 26, 2014 by Darnell

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Werd, I thought Capitalism and the free market was supposed to regulated prices through demand and competition. Now they're regulated by whatever your cable company feels like. Brand new customer? Here's everything for $1. Loyal customer for 5 years with no late payments? $1 billion dollars. Awww, wanna go to a competitor? Awww, there aren't any??????

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_HH75OT9vc8

I called up direct TV and canceled. Don't take the free stuff, insist on canceling. Give the cut off date a week out. They called back. My bill went from around 95 bucks a month to 54 +Free Movie channels and Whole Home DVR

[GandD 5,966]

I called up direct TV and canceled. Don't take the free stuff, insist on canceling. Give the cut off date a week out. They called back. My bill went from around 95 bucks a month to 54 +Free Movie channels and Whole Home DVR

I know how it works. I don't care about tv, i care about internet.

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Man, I had to do so much fighting to get Verizon to disconnect the Fios that was here and get back to copper loop. It was an epic battle. Harpa wins.

If anyone wants to get copper loop back, which is required by law, I was told you can tell them you are a criminal on house arrest to get them to listen up.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

I know how it works. I don't care about tv, i care about internet.

IC Yes I am with the local cable company for internet. No good alternative

[GandD 5,966]

IC Yes I am with the local cable company for internet. No good alternative

Are you guys Time Warner?

[Operator 1,927]

I'm with those criminals for our interweb because there is no respectable alternative here. They pushing for all their residential clients to upgrade to business class for some reason.

Now they were purchased by Comcast I think.

[The Nature Boy 4,224]

Are you guys Time Warner?

Cox which I think is a daughter company. Oh the horror stories.

[deleted-05292014 331]

Man, I had to do so much fighting to get Verizon to disconnect the Fios that was here and get back to copper loop. It was an epic battle. Harpa wins.

If anyone wants to get copper loop back, which is required by law, I was told you can tell them you are a criminal on house arrest to get them to listen up.

Whaaat? Why you get rid of FIOS?

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Whaaat? Why you get rid of FIOS?

Because they would force me into a monopoly and then I would have to pay whatever they decided they could charge. This month, $100, next month, $110, next month, $130. I would have NO recourse to change. Because Fios is not regulated whereas copper loop is. Because in a power outage Fios will not work, whereas for copper loop the phone rings without power. We had hurricane Sandy and I do not want to be without a phone in case of an outage. I might need to call 911. Because it's a scam. Because a million reasons.

Edited February 26, 2014 by Harpa Timsah

[deleted-05292014 331]

Because they would force me into a monopoly and then I would have to pay whatever they decided they could charge. This month, $100, next month, $110, next month, $130. I would have NO recourse to change. Because Fios is not regulated whereas copper loop is. Because in a power outage Fios will not work, whereas for copper loop the phone rings without power. We had hurrican Sandy and I do not want to be without a phone in case of an outage. I might need to call 911. Because it's a scam. Because a million reasons.

Ah Ok. I'm jealous I wish I had fios

[Harpa Timsah 13,258]

Ah Ok. I'm jealous I wish I had fios

Don't get suckered in. It's a chimera

And it's not yet regulated so they can do whatever the they want. That's why they have the big ad campaign, to get you to want it! Because once they get you, they don't have to act as a public utility any more. And in fact, they are using their privilege as a public utility to sneak in a cable that is not regulated by the gov. Very dirty tactics wrapped in a package of hopes and dreams.

[deleted-05292014 331]

Don't get suckered in. It's a chimera

And it's not yet regulated so they can do whatever the #### they want. That's why they have the big ad campaign, to get you to want it! Because once they get you, they don't have to act as a public utility any more. And in fact, they are using their privilege as a public utility to sneak in a cable that is not regulated by the gov. Very dirty tactics wrapped in a package of hopes and dreams.

Yes but I'm a techie I want to be sucked in. Kinda like people into s&m they liked to be tied up and beat lol

They will have competition with Google eventually - although I don't know if Google is laying their own fiber. But i agree with you it is a rip off but I am paying $100 a month for speeds not even in the same ballpark as fios. So I'd volunteer to be abused

Then again before dsl and cable, I signed up for that PC satellite asynchronous service. I think it was called pcdirec or something years ago.

I'm feeling old. My first modem was a Hayes 110/300 baud