Re: Verizon Policy Statement on Net Neutrality

[Rob McEwen <rob () invaluement com>]

On 2/27/2015 12:49 PM, Stephen Sprunk wrote:
> This case seems to prove that the telco/cable duopoly can't _always_ 
> buy the FCC rulings they desire; every now and then, the US govt 
> surprises us and actually represents the people.

I know that ISPs are not perfect. Nothing is perfect. But what is 
incredible about this whole debate... is

(1) how few people are actually suffering right now. If "net neutrality" 
had never made the news... and you went out and talked to 10,000 people, 
and forced them to sit down and write out their top 100 problems in 
life... and compiled all 1 million answers... I doubt internet 
connectivity problems or slow internet speeds would come up more than a 
few times... if even once!

(2) meanwhile, we're such spoiled brats because... the bandwidth usage 
per second... AND the total number of users... AND the usage 
scenarios... AND the amount of hours of usage per day per person... has 
all SKYROCKETED in the past 15 years. It is AMAZING that the ISPs have 
kept pace. And this wasn't easy. My business is spam filtering and 
e-mail hosting... and in that related business... the usage levels per 
dollar of revenue (literally.. the # of MBs per dollar of revenue) is 
order of magnitudes higher than it was 15 years ago... and, like others, 
I've had to do amazing things to keep things flowing well with the same 
basic $/user. (getting faster hardware wasn't even nearly enough) That 
wasn't easy.

(3) when ISPs abuse their power, consumers can vote with their wallet to 
another access points. Yes, the choices are somewhat limited, but there 
are CHOICES (including 4G).. and, btw, there would have been MORE 
choices if the economy wasn't continuing to be anemic over the past 
several years. In contrast, when the government abuses their power, it 
is MUCH harder to move to another country. Plus, a bad ISP can only make 
someone's life so miserable. But an out-of-control government that has 
too much power can fine you, imprison you, IRS audit you, over-regulate 
you, legally (and illegally) spy on you, etc. (Just merely defining 
private networks as if they were "public airways"... is already a huge 
potential 4th amendment violation... why stop with cables moving data? 
Why not just make your hard drive... or your files in your filing cabnet 
part of their jurisdiction, too? Can they vote that in too? If you think 
not, tell me... what is stopping them that applies DIFFERENTLY from what 
they just did?)

We're solving an almost non-existing problem.. by over-empowering an 
already out of control US government, with powers that we can't even 
begin to understand the extend of how they could be abused... to "fix" 
an industry that has done amazingly good things for consumers in recent 
years.

--
Rob McEwen