FCC May Tweak Broadband Plan 52
adeelarshad82 writes "Despite a recent ruling that said the FCC did not have the right to interfere in Comcast's network management issues, the agency is pushing ahead with its national broadband plan, though there might be some tweaks. Since the case was won on the fact that the FCC based its decision on its Internet Policy Principles, a set of guidelines the agency developed internally several years ago regarding broadband Internet service and not actual rules that went through a formal, open rulemaking process, they are invalid, as is the enforcement action. FCC general counsel Austin Schlick acknowledged that the court's decision may affect a significant number of important plan recommendations. The commission is assessing the implications of the decision for each recommendation to ensure that it has adequate authority to execute the mission laid out in the plan."
Re:Add an amendment to the constitution... (Score:5, Insightful)
That would be against the very foundation of our country and the concept of state sovereignty, and would have far reaching consequences as it would instantly give the federal government direct control over *every* aspect of your life.
Might as well shut down all state government if that should happen.
Re:Sad to see that (Score:4, Insightful)
There are many nuances to these kind of metrics that can be exploited to make things look one way or another. For example, measuring "availability" without regard to cost, which is almost meaningless.
The number that matters is adoption - for each country, a histogram of what percentage of the population has each speed of connection. Adoption is what matters because that determines the actual impact of the infrastructure.
Re:formal, open rulemaking process (Score:2, Insightful)
"And you can bet when they do, Comcast will regret calling them out on it."
I hope they get hammered. Just look at how they treat customers in their home state, in between where they're headquartered and the state's capital.
I'm in Pennsylvania, which is home to Comcast corporate. The state legislature pretty much kisses Comcast's derriere and passes whatever the company wants into law, as seen with the cable box law they passed several years ago. Assembly hearings on trying to break the monopoly on PCN in the past always revolve back to how "it can't be done" or worrying about "disrupting" current services. Comcast has jacked their rates up an average of $35 a month on an extended cable bill with broadband internet over the past 7 years. The move to digital TV has gotten rates even higher, from box rentals, and generally piss poor customer service, esp. billing, where they often threaten to charge people for speaking to a representative about their bill.
The thing is, for huge swaths of the county I'm in, Lancaster, they are the only game in town. Verizon refuses to activate ISDN lines or hook up fiber to the curb where they ran it, and most COs that have DSL don't serve many available houses because they pair gained lines as residential communities exploded. FiOS is unavailable from what I can tell. Verizon isn't running lines to new communities (I know, I'm in real estate) or to wealthier developments (usually targetted by FiOS). Because utilities are underground in the new areas, it's nearly impossible to build out new lines later.
So we get stuck with Comcast. For the $35 more per month, I have fewer channels than I did before, and even fewer that I like. Movie channels have been replaced by game and decade old TV rerun channels. My broadband speed has gone up a whopping 1.4 megabit over those 7 years, despite being claimed to have gone up 3-4 megabit according to Comcast. Upload speed has doubled from 256 to about 512kbit. However, the lag has gotten far far worse. Before it was quick, now it's a slug. Hitting a website delays nearly half a second usually, because of the caching Comcast does (documented years ago on /. and often seen when their network crashes) and gaming generally sucks despite their claims because of the lag. And BitTorrent, well, that's just obviously filtered to hell, as has been well documented on /. They also obviously throttle BT traffic too.
Now, this month, they have yet another change; I have to get boxes from them to continue my service (after less than a year ago during the analog to digital transition Comcast advertised stating "Comcast has you covered"). I supposedly get more channels with digital (we'll see), but I have to rent a box for every damn TV over 3. Can't buy it at a reasonable cost, and they also likely know my viewing habits since it's their box. And I've got to go hook the damn sets up. Channel changing is piss ass slow (my parents already changed over) compared to analog, and Comcast just made defunct many recorders--VCRs, digital recorders, DVRs, and PVRs--because of non-standard interfacing with the IR outlet used in their DTAs.
They even charge for speaking to a billing representative (or at least threaten it) or for phone payments. Whopping $5. How the hell is automated phone processing add $5 to a customer's bill?
When Comcast first hit the area and built it out, satellite TV dishes in the area were few and far between. Now, I see more and more people getting Dish Network and DirecTV. Makes me wonder where people are getting their internet access. Dialup? Cell phone providers?
"( of cousre even if they do go down, their board already made their millions )"
Sadly, they have. They went from doing things the right way, to finding that removing services and giving less value increases their profitability. This is why we lag other nations, and why I hope the FCC increases competition, because the current crop of monopolies--Comcats with TV and Veriz
Re:Sad to see that (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, this outcome is vastly preferable to collapse of an economic system.
Nice try though.
voodoo junk economic science (Score:1, Insightful)
Crap. And you are a cult member because you "believed" in their fairy tale threats and extortion and other lies, just like a good cult member "believes" in whatever his or her cult leaders tell them to believe. This is the sort of system we have
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/story/32906678/looting_main_street/ [rollingstone.com]
THAT is what would have crashed, and it deserves it. The other system, the one where people are honest and just go to work and make useful things and similar, would have been just fine in short order after we had disposed of that rotten carcass. And I'll counter that phony cult belief system every time I see it on this board. "Believing" in their lies and repeating them is no different from being a flat earther or scamsciencetologist.
There are no rules, just looting by the casino banks, facilitated by their cult members and brainwashing. Yep, I would be for a "free market" if it existed. Those turkeys would be past history by now if it did. You can defend them or believe in their lies, I refuse, I don't support conmen. And I wouldn't have said jack shit to you if you hadn't insulted the guy you were replying to with your snarky "nice try" comment. "ohhh we avoided a collapse". No we didn't, we facilitated even more ripoffs! We got put on the hook for trillions to support that grifter's economy!
fuck..that...shit