Avatar
Join the discussion…


  • in this conversation
        Media preview placeholder
        Log in with
        or sign up with Disqus or pick a name

        Disqus is a discussion network

        • Disqus never moderates or censors. The rules on this community are its own.
        • Your email is safe with us. It's only used for moderation and optional notifications.
        • Don't be a jerk or do anything illegal. Everything is easier that way.

        Read full terms and conditions

        By signing up, you agree to the Disqus Basic Rules, Terms of Service, and Privacy Policy.
        By posting, you agree to the Disqus Basic Rules, Terms of Service, and Privacy Policy.
        • Avatar
          Marty Dougherty a year ago

          you guys load me up with junk ads etc with all the reasons the current system is so great. Well if everything is going so well why are their HUGE areas of the country without ANY broadband? Its because the holders of he monopolies don't want to deploy in those areas. Unless something changes these areas will NEVER EVER get broadband. Imagine if that was the way electricity or telephone service rolled out? The companies that have near monopolies on telephone poles, right of ways and radio spectrums brought this on to themselves...
            • Avatar
              rfkolbe Marty Dougherty a year ago

              Well put. The facts are hard to ignore.
              • Avatar
                Fred Zanfardino Marty Dougherty a year ago

                First, where do you see "HUGE" areas without any broadband? I have never heard of *anyone* without broadband, if there are places without it it's because there is not a strong demand for it there. Where's your proof of "HUGE" broadband less areas? All estimates I've seen have the percentage of the country with broadband as over 90%. If you're such an humanitarian, why don't you go to these supposed areas and blow your own cash on broadband for them? Second, you ignore that broadband is still growing. Sorry the process isn't going fast enough for you, but the system is working and is why the vast majority of the country does have broadband.

                Oh, and electricity and telephone service did roll out just like that, BTW.

                By the way, the fact that you refer to "monopolies" shows how ignorant you are. There can't be "monopolies." Monopoly means ONE ENTITY controlling everything. If there are two entities in control, it can't be a "monopoly." Monopoly is single, not plural. Also, there is no such thing as a "near Monopoly" either. Something is either a monopoly or it's not.
                  • Avatar
                    ccddppff Fred Zanfardino a year ago

                    I don't have broadband. Western MA. Most people out here, outside of large towns/small cities, have NO broadband options. I suspect it's just as bad elsewhere.
                      • Avatar
                        DavidH Fred Zanfardino a year ago

                        Way to argue semantics over substance. We have monopolies, plural, because the controlling entity is different in different areas.

                        In this comment and others, you argue as though the circle of people you know reflects the world. Clearly, it doesn't. There are plenty of people without broadband, or with "broadband" that doesn't really qualify as such (slow speeds, inadequate for even non-HD streaming, etc.). Generally speaking, problems are most prevalent in rural areas. It's not a demand problem at all. But even in non-rural areas, what's clear is that Comcast, TimeWarner, and Verizon want control, not competition, with each other or anyone else. Consumers' interests require a different approach.
                      • Avatar
                        Guest a year ago

                        This appears to be a bogus front group for the Cable Industry. They do no want government regulations whereas as a consumer; I indeed DO WANT REGULATIONS that protect the consumer and the free flow of information.
                          • Avatar
                            Fred Zanfardino Guest a year ago

                            First off, you a liar. They do not "no want government regulations." What they want is reasonable regulations that do indeed protect consumers and the flow of information (which by the way, is not and can never be made actually "free", but I digress) which is not what "net neutrality" Title 2'rs want. They want an FCC dictatorship with power to force the internet to reform in their own control freak central dominated image. Second, you are such a typical lib. Immediately call a group an industry front just because they disagree with you and also don't bother to read what they actually are advocating for.

                            Also, how do I know YOU'RE not a front for NetFlix, Microsoft, Apple and the other companies that are pushing for "net neutrality?"
                              • Avatar
                                Guest Fred Zanfardino a year ago

                                Just a joy to correspond with you Fred! I said it appears to be -- how does that make me a liar? You are drinking the Cable Industry Kool Aid. I encourage a bit of scholarly reading on the subject. Ok ?
                                === The Cable Companies do not serve in the public interest; they serve shareholders and care little about the free flow of information so vital to our democracy. --- Does this ring any bells? We the People kind of stuff?
                                • Avatar
                                  Derelictus Guest a year ago

                                  Odd that you are so trusting of the government to be able to provide those things?
                                    • Avatar
                                      Joel Detrow Derelictus a year ago

                                      Well, the private sector has essentially gone completely unregulated since 2005, and look where it's gotten us: ludicrous prices for shitty internet. All of Europe and most of Asia regulate their ISPs as common carriers, and there are plenty of places there where you can get symmetrical 50 megabit landline internet for <$20 a month, AND NO THROTTLING BULLSHIT. If you haven't heard of Symmetrical, that means both download AND upload speeds can reach the listed speed. People can't make good video calls on Skype because ISPs in the US stick consumers with Asymmetrical lines which have upload speeds a tiny fraction of the download speed.

                                      The courts have said the FCC has no power to regulate ISPs under Title I. None. Zero. The ISPs lobbied ferociously to get Title I, and succeeded in 2005 (THEY WERE TITLE II BEFORE THAT). The 1996 Telecommunications Act gave the ISPs massive tax breaks in exchange for a promise to bring 45 Mbps internet to EVERY HOME IN AMERICA. We all know that didn't happen, they didn't even TRY to accomplish this, they sat on their inflating piles of cash, used it to buy up all their competition, and once they'd established local monopolies, jacked up the prices. http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pu...

                                      When communities began creating their own locally-owned fiber networks that blew incumbents' services out of the water, the fat cat ISPs began to lobby state legislatures all over the country to create laws which made it impossible for community broadband networks to stay in business, if not banning them outright. Today, at least TWENTY states have passed laws limiting the ability of community networks to stay in business. http://arstechnica.com/tech-po...

                                      The ISPs are out of control, and at this point, the FCC is the only government body with the power to stop them. The "experiment" of Title I has failed. The tax breaks have failed. Competition has failed. The ISPs don't have to do a damn thing the FCC says until it pulls out a big stick with "Title II" carved on it.
                                        • Avatar
                                          Fred Zanfardino Joel Detrow a year ago

                                          First off, I don't know what your problem is. I get great service for a very reasonable price, as do everyone I know. If you're getting "ludicrous prices for shitty internet" that is your own problem. As for Europe and Asia, I have no idea where you are getting that info, but it's flat out wrong. Places in Europe and Asia who regulate their ISPs have slow service, high prices, and crappy deployment. If there is any place giving Internet for 20 dollars a month and no throttling is because they are giving a bare bones cut rate service and no throttling means SLOW SERVICE, dummy. Throttling is good, it prevents a few users who gobble up bandwidth (usually making illegal downloads with torrent software) for clogging it up for the rest of us. I know plenty of people who make good video calls on Skype, so that is also more of your unsubstantiated wild accusations.

                                          Secondly, the idea that the private sector has gone completely unregulated since 2005 is crap. fact remains that ISP's are still subject to all kinds of regulations and anti-trust laws.

                                          Okay, so you claim that the ISP's said they would bring 45 MbPS to every home? I call bullshit because it's impossible to bring anything to EVERY home and everyone knows that, least of all regulators. I'm sure what that was mrely setting a goal to try to reach. And as to your notion that all they've done is inflate their piles of crash, buy up "all" their competition (which makes no sense anyway, because if every company was buying up ALL their competition how come there is not one company instead of many) and jacked up the prices? Nonsense, they have created thousands and thousands of new cable and added many new services at prices that are better value than virtually any other telecommunications service. And be the way, your link to some PBS hack's inexpert rant from over 7 years ago disproves none of that.

                                          Now on to your so-called "locally-owned" "community" fiber networks. First off, they were/are not locally owned or community based, these municipal broadband companies are/were owned by local bureaucratic elites in government. And they are riddled with inefficiency and bad service. "Blew out of the water?" More like drowned in the water. Municipal broadband has had a disastrous record and most never got over the ground, and that included outside the few paltry states where it is banned. BTW, Twenty measly states out of 50 have banned it? Eww, scary, those ISPS sure are powerful! (Not.) These municipal networks were challenged by ISP's and others because a) they are an unfair intrusion into the marketplace by the public sector because 1) they are unfair competition as they don't have to make money but are funded by the government and 20 they unfairly squeeze out private sector investment by usurping private infrastructure b) they are a drain on taxpayers most of whom don't or didn't use the service and c) they were trying to force private companies to do things how they felt it should be done which is illegal and immoral and why the ISP's lobbied against them. Sorry to puncture your little myth about big bad ISPs oppressing "locally owned" broadband companies, but the fact is the ISPs did us a favor by challenging them as municipal broadband was a government fraud from the start.

                                          The ISPs are not out of control, your ignorance and misunderstanding are. Competition didn't fail, it worked. The ISP's still have to do certain things even without your beloved Title II and the things Title II would force them do are undesirable and would hurt consumers.

                                          Unlike this clown, who provided a few weak links to supposedly back up his claims and narrative, I can point to a site that has thousands of outside sources and the like that back up what I say here and in other posts. They can be found here:

                                          http://z4.invisionfree.com/Pop...

                                          and

                                          http://z4.invisionfree.com/Pop...

                                          So long, losers!
                                            see more
                                          • Avatar
                                            rfkolbe Derelictus a year ago

                                            We are the government.
                                        • Avatar
                                          PragueBob 2 years ago

                                          I think the key word here is individual. It is not up to the government to decide what is best for us, we should be the ones to decide. The government should reflect the will of the people and not exploit technology to control them in the service of the corporations which have hijacked governments everywhere and now give us only the illusion of choice. We need to be wary of transnational corporations, for it is those that are undermining governments worldwide and helping them through technological means to turn people everywhere into wage slaves, completely at their mercy from womb to tomb. We must stop this evil from spreading at all costs. Small is beautiful, think globally and act locally. Do whatever it takes to keep the transnational corporations from acting globally, for that is the path to complete and utter tyranny, worldwide. Do I dare mention the word? Bilderberg. Educate yourselves about this threat to freedom everywhere. Then educate others. Buy and use bitcoins, because they are free from central banking authority and control. Cherish and nurture individual freedom. You can find me on Twitter under the same nickname.
                                            • Avatar
                                              Fred Zanfardino PragueBob a year ago

                                              Oh, here we go, the favorite boogeyman of the fanatical corporate hating paranoids: Bilderberg! Reality check, loser: Bilderbeg is just another group of liked minded individuals who want to influence policy of which there are thousands like it from all ends of the religious, political, and social spectrum. They are no more controlling all the nations of the world than the Boy Scouts, the ACLU, the NRA or Code Pink. And most of which also hold their meetings in private, or as the looney folks term it "in secret." Give me a break.

                                              By the way, it's the places that have freedom and less government and more "powerful and "evil" corporations that have happier people with better wages and work conditions, and it's places like Denmark and other socialist counties where the citizen is a slave to the governments will from womb to tomb.

                                              Yeah, I know where I can find you, in your basement with the other tin hatted morons. By the way, BitCoin is nothing more than a Ponzi scheme which you are probably a willing part of.

                                              By the way, look out, I see an Illuminati and a Freemason behind you, Prague Breath!
                                            • Avatar
                                              Mark Able Jones a year ago

                                              Net neutrality means keeping the internet just like it is--a hub of innovation and competition with low barriers to market entry. Only a idiot would argue otherwise. Reclassify.
                                              • Avatar
                                                Joel Detrow a year ago

                                                Okay, you're non-profit? Let's see the books - who pays you? Who makes donations? What are your ties to the industry? I have seen nothing to indicate you are anything but a front created by the establishment ISPs specifically to oppose things that make it harder for you to make the obscene profits which you currently rake in.
                                                  • Avatar
                                                    Fred Zanfardino Joel Detrow a year ago

                                                    Let's see the books? Hey, idiot, you can see the books, it's called their tax form which is readily available from the IRS and other sources. Look it up yourself, lazy ass.

                                                    "I have seen nothing to indicate you are anything but a front created by
                                                    the establishment ISPs specifically to oppose things that make it
                                                    harder for you to make the obscene profits which you currently rake in."

                                                    In other words, they must be a front because they disagree with you and your insipid socialist ideology and ignorant beliefs.

                                                    Again, how do I know *your* not a shrill created by the establishment software and tech companies to specifically support things that would cripples the ISPs and thus would make it easier for you to make the obscene profits which you currently rake in?