Holy shit, AT&T already made changes? Jesus Christ, I honestly didn't expect them to move this quickly. That really blows.
Luckily I live in California where they're currently enacting statewide NN laws. But man, red states and probably purple states are going to be in a world of shit.
I thought the tech moguls had more clout then this.
The cable networks sure must be happy, cord cutting becomes much less viable..
__________________ What CDTM believes;
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
Well not all places have a choice, right? I know around here for a long time if you wanted high speed internet it was pretty much...you go with Comcast.
__________________ Chicken Boo, what's the matter with you? You don't act like the other chickens do. You wear a disguise to look like human guys, but you're not a man you're a Chicken Boo.
That would be good advice, if AT&T wasn't essentially a legal monopoly in many areas (In cahoots with Verizon and Comcast)
Excuses abound like the cost of infrastructure, but everyone knows there's government corruption involved here, like in most anti-competitive things..
__________________ What CDTM believes;
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
Gender: Unspecified Location: 30.3322 degrees N 81.6557 degrees S
But government was the reason so many places only have one choice to begin with. There's a reason that less than a decade after the '96 Telecom Act was signed in, ISPs in the United States shrunk by nearly 3/4.
Stefan Molyneux does an amazing job here going through all this. Starting with the Communications Act of 1934 which basically ensured that AT&T would become a monopoly. Definitely worth a listen to get a full understanding on Net Neutrality:
If he's in my situation, my choices are AT&T or Verizon, who mirror each other's practices pretty much. I can go to the odd smaller company, but then I have basically shit coverage by comparison. eg no reception when I visit my brother in Richmond Va, no reception when I go camping a few hours Northeast etc. So my "choice" as a consumer isn't much of a choice.
Gender: Unspecified Location: 30.3322 degrees N 81.6557 degrees S
And that sucks. But ask yourself, "Why are my choices only AT&T and Verizon?" Watch the video I posted. It goes into very great detail explaining why that occurred.
Tl;dr - the history of the Telecommunication Act of 1934 to regulations enacted all the way up leading to today (like act of '96 in which 13 of the 15 FCC members who wrote that act ended up as lobbyists) is what led to such limited choices to begin with. Historic consequences of regulations has always been less choices for the consumer.
And ultimately the consumer is the one who gets phucked when regulations meant to protect the consumer from virtual monopolies are removed. So my choices are A) or B) which is basically a clone of A or very shitty service from a lowly contender who will never really be able to compete or no service at all. Hmmm.
Gender: Unspecified Location: 30.3322 degrees N 81.6557 degrees S
But it was the government that made those virtual monopolies possible in the first place. Kansas City is a prime example of a city that was in that situation but has since been transformed into a tech hub: http://time.com/9199/the-surprising...g-to-your-town/
These things will come once you deregulate the market and increase the incentive to provide better options.
Just like PG&E is a needed monopoly, unless we're going to be tearing up roads over and over to install new lines for new power companies, but it's also why a company like PG&E needs to be regulated so they don't screw over the consumer who basically has no little to no choice in picking their product.
There was this one company that piggybacked off of PG&E, forget the name, but it didn't last as it couldn't complete.
Scholarly articles talk about "regulatory capture", where the regulators get turned towards the interests of the company they're supposed to be regulating, as an inevitability.
Of course, a company that has captured an agency would like deregulation wholesale, but I suspect they'd be happy with a status quo, over a complete shakeup, where they need to begin the capturing process all over again.
__________________ What CDTM believes;
Never let anyone else define you. Don't be a jerk just to be a jerk, but if you are expressing your true inner feelings and beliefs, or at least trying to express that inner child, and everyone gets pissed off about it, never NEVER apologize for it. Let them think what they want, let them define you in their narrow little minds while they suppress every last piece of them just to keep a friend that never liked them for themselves in the first place.
Gender: Unspecified Location: 30.3322 degrees N 81.6557 degrees S
I don't know what PG&E is. So I can't comment on that instance. But once you add government into a business, the business controls the government through its money and lobbyists.
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Jun 11th, 2018 09:07 PM
