2017-12-15 01:35

Hey, remember when Comcast filtered P2P traffic including BitTorrent, Skype, and Spotify?

Remember when AT&T blocked FaceTime and Google Voice on their network?

Remember when Verizon throttled all video except mysteriously for their subsidiary go90?

Because I remember.

If you're celebrating today, then what you're saying is, it's a GOOD thing to have no legal authority to challenge ISPs when they pull the shit they clearly already did.

Because that's literally all that happened in 2015, w/ forbearance

In fact, Wheeler ONLY pursued the clauses of Title II that dealt with nondiscrimination (common carrier status), and didn't apply rate regulation or taxes or last-mile unbundling.

He did this because Verizon successfully sued to prevent the FCC from using Section 706, and the judge told Wheeler he needed to reclassify as Title II.

It should be obvious that the "free market" will not solve a problem created by the market. This is market failure, plain and simple.

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Which rules "allow" ISPs to monopolize regions? ISPs collude to not enter markets, renege on coverage expansion contracts, and prevent competition by claiming ownership of the backbone.

In fact, I would support taking it out of the FCC's hands entirely, so that people like Pai can't take us backwards at their whims as the political winds change. The Open Internet Order of 2015 which was just repealed was not too much. It was not enough. There needs to be an act specifically protecting the free and open internet, and repealing the Telecommunications Act of 1996. Among other acts...

So pardon me for thinking the decision today was not great. There's an overwhelming pile of evidence that Pai ignored wholesale in order to push an agenda that benefits the ISPs who simply want to profit more, users be damned.