Obama says FCC should reclassify internet as a utility

[Shadowrider]

n a statement outlining what he'd like internet service to look like, Obama highlights four major points: internet providers wouldn't be allowed to block websites offering legal content, they wouldn't be allowed to intentionally slow down or speed up certain websites or services based on their own preferences, and they wouldn't be able to offer paid fast lanes. Obama also asks that the FCC investigate and potentially apply net neutrality rules to the interconnect points that sit between service providers and content providers.

Sounds like something right out of the Kremlin, Beijing or North Korea to me.

 

[donner]

Sounds like something right out of the Kremlin, Beijing or North Korea to me.

Are you referring to doing the things in bold or prohibiting companies from doing the things in bold?

 

[SlugSlinger]

Step 3, impose service fees and taxes for the underprivileged.

FCC Step two: Apply the Universal Service doctrine to internet service, followed closely by cellular service.
NSA Step one: Increase monitoring of all services to make sure FCC rules are being followed.

My preference is for the gummint to keep (or get) out of most things to the largest extent possible. How is the internet any of the gummints bidness?

 

[JD8]

I swear if Obama came out and endorsed oxygen........half of you would die the next day.

 

[Shadowrider]

Are you referring to doing the things in bold or prohibiting companies from doing the things in bold?

The operative words are a little bit bigger. See if you can see it now...

internet providers wouldn't be allowed to block websites offering legal content, they wouldn't be allowed to intentionally slow down or speed up certain websites or services based on their own preferences, and they wouldn't be able to offer paid fast lanes.

 

[Shadowrider]

I swear if Obama came out and endorsed oxygen........half of you would die the next day.

I expect that they'll classify it as a greenhouse gas pretty soon...

 

[Werewolf]

Well - hell has officially frozen over. My blood's not boiling, my pressure is normal and I am totally flabergasted in a good way. The obamanation after 6 years in office has finally asked for something that may actually be a good thing.

I don't see the issue here. He's trying to prevent what has happened with cable TV. Cable started out good but it has evolved into total crap where a provider with what is essentially a monopoly tells you what to buy and how to buy it. Don't like the packages they sell - tough. Buy it or go elsewhere - except in many cases there isn't an elsewhere.

By doing what obama wants the cable companies - it seems anyway - are nothing more than conduits from providers. You get to turn on what ever valve you want and ignore those you don't and the internet providers can't give preference to providers that aren't knuckling under to their demands.

I don't see the down side here.

Someone explain it in plain english so my deteriorating old brain can understand.

 

[WNM]

I swear if Obama came out and endorsed oxygen........half of you would die the next day.

 

[Sanford]

IMHO the internet's been getting along just fine for the past 30 odd years without government supervision - I'm for keeping it that way. The FCC has become an anachronism and should in large part be dismantled.

 

[WNM]

IMHO the internet's been getting along just fine for the past 30 odd years without government supervision - I'm for keeping it that way. The FCC has become an anachronism and should in large part be dismantled.

These are different times we live in now. Alot of the companies that provide TV also provide internet service. With the advent of Netflix, Hulu, Amazon, etc, people are spending their money there, and ditching their traditional TV service. There in lies the problem.

With people ditching cable and using the internet for their entertainment, those companies slice of the pie is not as big as it once was. That's why they would want to throttle speeds to streaming services such as the ones mentioned above. If you like your internet the way it has always been, whether you love them or hate them, you need the FCC on this one. Or you can trust huge corporations to do the right thing.