Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
It's Now Clear None of the Supposed Benefits of Killing Net Neutrality Are Real
Network investment is down, layoffs abound, and networks are falling apart. This isn't the glorious future Ajit Pai promised.
In the months leading up to the FCC assault on net neutrality, big telecom and FCC boss Ajit Pai told anybody who'd listen that killing net neutrality would boost broadband industry investment, spark job creation, and drive broadband into underserved areas at an unprecedented rate.
As it turns out, none of those promises were actually true.
Despite the FCC voting to kill the popular consumer protections late last year, Comcast's latest earnings report indicates that the cable giant's capital expenditures (CAPEX) for 2018 actually decreased 3 percent. The revelation comes on the heels by similar statements by Verizon and Charter Spectrum that they'd also be seeing lower network investment numbers in 2018.
It's not expected to get any better in 2019. According to analysis this week by Wall Street research firm MoffettNathanson, capital spending among the nation's four biggest cable providers (Altice, Comcast, Charter Spectrum, CableONE) is expected to decline upwards of 5.8 percent this year.
Related Stories
Democrats in the U.S. Congress plan to unveil legislation on Wednesday to reinstate “net neutrality” rules that were repealed by the Trump administration in December 2017, House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi said.
Pelosi told lawmakers in a letter that House Democrats, who won control of the chamber in the November 2018 elections, would work with their colleagues in the U.S. Senate to pass the “Save The Internet Act.”
The text of the proposed legislation has not been released.
The Federal Communications Commission repealed the rules that bar providers from blocking or slowing internet content or offering paid “fast lanes.” The repeal was a win for providers like Comcast Corp, AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc, but was opposed by internet companies like Facebook Inc, Amazon.com Inc and Alphabet Inc.
The Senate, which is controlled by Republicans, voted in May 2018 to reinstate the net neutrality rules, but the House did not take up the issue before Congress adjourned last year.
A U.S. federal appeals court last month held lengthy oral arguments in a legal challenge to the FCC’s decision to repeal the net neutrality rules.
In its 2017 decision, the Republican-led FCC voted 3-2 along party lines to reverse the net neutrality rules. The agency gave providers sweeping power to recast how users access the internet but said they must disclose changes in users’ internet access.
A spokeswoman for FCC chairman Ajit Pai did not immediately comment on Monday.
Related:
FCC Struggles to Convince Judge That Broadband Isn't "Telecommunications"
It's Now Clear None of the Supposed Benefits of Killing Net Neutrality Are Real
FCC Chairman Pai Celebrates Congress Failing to Bring Back Net Neutrality
Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
Ajit Pai's rosy broadband deployment claim may be based on gigantic error
Ajit Pai's latest claim that his deregulatory policies have increased broadband deployment may be based in part on a gigantic error. Pai's claim was questionable from the beginning, as we detailed last month. The Federal Communications Commission data cited by Chairman Pai merely showed that deployment continued at about the same rate seen during the Obama administration. Despite that, Pai claimed that new broadband deployed in 2017 was made possible by the FCC "removing barriers to infrastructure investment."
But even the modest gains cited by Pai rely partly on the implausible claims of one ISP that apparently submitted false broadband coverage data to the FCC, advocacy group Free Press told the FCC in a filing this week. Further Reading Ajit Pai says broadband access is soaring—and that he's the one to thank
The FCC data is based on Form 477 filings made by ISPs from around the country. A new Form 477 filer called Barrier Communications Corporation, doing business as BarrierFree, suddenly "claimed deployment of fiber-to-the-home and fixed wireless services (each at downstream/upstream speeds of 940mbps/880mbps) to census blocks containing nearly 62 million persons," Free Press Research Director Derek Turner wrote.
"This claimed level of deployment stood out to us for numerous reasons, including the impossibility of a new entrant going from serving zero census blocks as of June 30, 2017, to serving nearly 1.5 million blocks containing nearly 20 percent of the US population in just six months time," Turner wrote. "We further examined the underlying Form 477 data and discovered that BarrierFree appears to have simply submitted as its coverage area a list of every single census block in each of eight states in which it claimed service: CT, DC, MD, NJ, NY, PA, RI, and VA."
In reality, BarrierFree's website doesn't market any fiber-to-the-home service, and it advertises wireless home Internet speeds of up to just 25mbps, Free Press noted.
Related: Just How Rigged is America's Broadband World? A Deep Dive Into One US City Reveals All
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai Proposes Raising Rural Broadband Speeds
Speedtest.net Report Concludes That Broadband Speeds in U.S. Are Improving
It's Now Clear None of the Supposed Benefits of Killing Net Neutrality Are Real
FCC Struggles to Convince Judge That Broadband Isn't "Telecommunications"
Democrats To Push To Reinstate Repealed 'Net Neutrality' Rules
(Score: 2) by Alfred on Friday January 25 2019, @07:53PM (2 children)
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Friday January 25 2019, @09:32PM (1 child)
Weapons of Mass Destruction, anyone?
You can tell when Politicians are lying, it's when their lips are moving.
🌻🌻🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @11:13PM
Weapons of mass destruction? What is Meuller talking again?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Friday January 25 2019, @07:58PM (1 child)
https://www.verizon.com/about/investors/quarterly-earnings [verizon.com]
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Thexalon on Friday January 25 2019, @09:38PM
Also relevant is this [opensecrets.org]. It turns out we have the best government money can buy, who knew?
And as a reminder, this kind of thing knows no political party. The people who supported net neutrality are those that got more from Google, Amazon, and maybe Netflix than they did from Verizon, Comcast, and Spectrum. This classic Eddie Murphy scene [youtube.com] explains perfectly how this is actually working.
"Think of how stupid the average person is. Then realize half of 'em are stupider than that." - George Carlin
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday January 25 2019, @08:04PM (2 children)
It was clear the instant someone proposed it. We know why this was done. No one at the levers of power believed for a moment killing NN would benefit anyone but themselves.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 5, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Friday January 25 2019, @09:26PM (1 child)
One tactic that the shills and hacks use is claiming that no one really knows anything at all, certainly not whether an idea is good or bad, or information is real or fake. Anti-science social conservatives make great useful idiots to believe in and support such claims.
But it's always good to have studies that show we do know better. Forces them to do extra work to have their way. Now they may feel obliged to spend time trying to discredit this finding.
I think the current government is looking pretty creaky and fragile under the weight of all the lies and willful ignorance they're constantly having to handle and defend. It's exhausting. That camel's back can't take very many more straws. This is one more.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @11:11PM
Anti-science social conservatives
useful idiots
I think the current government is looking pretty creaky and fragile under the weight of all the lies and willful ignorance
So nothing but attacks and name calling. Interesting?
we do know better
It's exhausting
Ah well at least YOU know better. Thank God! We were all sitting around waiting to know what YOU thought.
That camel's back can't take very many more straws. This is one more.
Is that sort of like the same thing as the bastion of the RNC portland? The one that currently has a measles outbreak because they read a paper once that said they might get sick because of shots?
Perhaps your views are ones of hatred. Maybe you could look at it from their POV and convince them? Or does name calling make the 'owwie' go away?
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @08:06PM (22 children)
Where you fuckers at? Most people on this site are pro NN, who were the fuckers defending Shit Pi's garbage about "free market" making the best solutions??
Khallow? You're the resident capitalist apologist, did you think removing NN would be good for users?
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday January 25 2019, @08:38PM (8 children)
Capitalism and Communism are both great ideas, and could be made to work in a perfect universe. Unfortunately, this isn't a perfect universe and as such I trust nothing, but one thing I can depend on is shitposting on Soylentnews. But what would we do if we could no longer do that? Sit under a tree and read a good book, or watch a nice sunset, or we could go back to the days of Plato and Socrates and sit on the steps of the Parthenon shitposting in real-life!
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @09:03PM (4 children)
Holding people accountable for their fuckups is shit posting now? Haha, party of personal responsibility my ass! Resident troll trolls again!
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday January 25 2019, @09:16PM (3 children)
Socrates tried, and he was sentenced to death to drink Hemlock.
The rest of us try to hold those accountable, and in doing so we are sentenced to death having to watch Seinfeld.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Friday January 25 2019, @09:49PM (1 child)
I'm gonna level with you, regardless of whether he is the inventor of philosophy or a corrupter of youth, Socrates died because he insulted the jury at his own damn trial. How fucking dumb do you gotta be.
(Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @10:37PM
It is EF, he is not dumb just an edge lord with a few sycophants that make him feel important. I can't wait till we grow out of the edge lord phase of "humor". EF is like those comedians who tell dick/vag jokes over and over, maybe funny once then it is just lame. I'm not sure why people hold up EF as some kind of master troll, maybe these people are truly that broken?
(Score: 2) by RandomFactor on Saturday January 26 2019, @12:42AM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=deOsP5ipfr4 [youtube.com]
В «Правде» нет известий, в «Известиях» нет правды
(Score: 1) by fustakrakich on Friday January 25 2019, @11:09PM
we could go back to the days of Plato and Socrates and sit on the steps of the Parthenon shitposting in real-life!
Mmmm, hemlock...
La politica e i criminali sono la stessa cosa..
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 26 2019, @04:24PM (1 child)
dude are you sober?
there are a few of you, this is the cool one. if you aren't sober, at least share the name of what you had so that we can try some.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday January 26 2019, @05:18PM
Sure. It's called "Not having to deal with Mexicans for a few weeks." You should try some, really lifts the spirits.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @08:42PM (1 child)
Much like capitalism itself, the internet is an anachronistic dumpster fire of naiveté and needless complexity that no amount of regulatory meddling can ever substantially improve. Remove NN, the fire rises.
Why contain it?
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @09:09PM
If you're not being paid for pushing that narrative then you are a sucker.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday January 25 2019, @09:35PM (1 child)
Suck my dick, Jew Bastards. DIE!
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday January 25 2019, @10:09PM
Google, Amazon. The rest of them, deep-state dogs all. Let them die like the dogs they are!
(Score: 4, Informative) by ikanreed on Friday January 25 2019, @09:47PM (2 children)
It's always frustrating demanding people who bullshitted you answer for their bullshit on the internet.
Because one of two things happen: they never show their face and pretend it didn't happen. Or you get pedantry about how they "never said that" or "well this particular resoundingly clear evidence of why I'm wrong doesn't satisfy completely arbitrary standard of truth 7b". Saying "I'm wrong" sucks balls, and no one likes to do it, but the kind of person you're trying to hold accountable now, extra doesn't want to do it.
(Score: -1, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday January 25 2019, @10:13PM
Suck my dick Alexa. Now you will know what is like to hear those whose sorrows you have ended.
(Score: 0, Offtopic) by Ethanol-fueled on Friday January 25 2019, @10:17PM
I am the Sorrow. Like you I too am filled with death. Sorrow brings death. Death brings sadness. The living, may not hear them. Their voices...may fall upon deaf ears. But Make no mistake.
Their voices are not silent.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @11:05PM (3 children)
If it was so good, where is the bills being proposed for the past say 12 years making it into law? Why the pretzel of the existing law? Did it occur that it was a love letter to google from the Obama admin for the thank you of money?
This about money. Plain and simple. It is not even very hard to follow it.
I remember when the democrats proposed limiting data providers (yeah I do not have that wrong) and were backing Time Warner. Then watched as the money started flowing. The data providers started flooding the the DNC with cash and the ISPs the RNC. They basically traded positions and did not lose a beat.
Remember this whole mess was started by Ted Turner's organization in a bid to double gouge customers. You can follow who HE donates money to.
You are being played. The game of 'we vs they' is the ones who want to rip you off. They play you with a skill that you can not even fathom because you are too busy being pissed off. They count on that BTW.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday January 26 2019, @06:56AM (2 children)
Obama’s attack on the internet was another top down power grab. Net neutrality was the Fairness Doctrine. Targeting conservative media. We did, very proudly, the Repeal of that one. Now our internet Companies are spending much less money. While turning out a much better product. MAGA!!
(Score: 3, Funny) by Pslytely Psycho on Saturday January 26 2019, @02:02PM (1 child)
"Obama’s attack on the internet was another top down power grab. Net neutrality was the Fairness Doctrine. Targeting conservative media. We did, very proudly, the Repeal of that one. Now our internet Companies are spending much less money. While turning out a much better product. MAGA!!"
I thought you didn't do drugs?
Alex Jones lawyer inspires new TV series: CSI Moron Division.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Saturday January 26 2019, @09:16PM
He's been getting high on his own supply of butt hash. Happens when your head's permanently up your ass.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 26 2019, @01:29AM
NN is a losing proposition for ISPs. They are in business to make money, and infrastructure costs are huge. We have three options: business as usual, NN and nationalize the internet infrastructure, and design/implement new protocols and infrastructure that don't require centralized infrastructure. 3 is the best option for a lot of reasons, but would probably require opening up spectrum, and creating viable alternatives to DNS and TCP/IP, because the protocols themselves encourage centralization.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 26 2019, @02:11PM
If we actually had a free market in ISPs there wouldn't be a problem with or without network neutrality. Unfortunately, what we really have is a bunch of state-granted local monopolies or duopolies who have a customer base that can't escape except by moving house, which is bloody expensive. My area, for instance, I've got a total of two choices: AT&T and SuddenLink. Both offer crap speeds and service at high price, because there's no competition available due to local monopoly. About three blocks away, AT&T offers their high speed UVerse stuff at reasonable prices. Solely because Google was planning to expand their fiber offering to that area (different county, same physical plant on the telecom infrastructure).
So, for me, a Libertarian, I'd have been fine getting rid of network neutrality on the condition that the local monopolies got removed so there could be some, you know, actual competition, which is kind of a necessary component for capitalism to work. Right now, I'd say bring back the old Telecommunications Act of 1996 rules on line-sharing; that was when I had the best internet available.
On the plus side, SpaceX's Starlink plans are set to bypass all the local monopolies entirely. Can't wait to see just how disruptive that's going to be. Watch for the established players like AT&T and Comcast to pitch a lobbyist fit to prevent it.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @09:36PM
The author of the GPL licensed text-mode casino game "GPC-Slots 2" has rescinded the license from the "Geek feminist" collective.
( https://lkml.org/lkml/2019/1/17/52 [lkml.org] [lkml.org] )
( https://slashdot.org/submission/9087542/author-recinds-gpl [slashdot.org] [slashdot.org] )
[Notice: the revocation of the "Geek Feminists"'s license /just/ occurred. 2019. January.]
The original author, after years of silence, notes that the "Geek Feminist" changed[1] a bunch of if-then statements which were preceded by a loop waiting for string input to a switch statement. The author reportedly noted that to use a switch statement in such an instance is no more preformant than the if-thens. Switch statements should be used where the input to the switch statement is numerical, and of a successive nature, for most efficient use of the jump table that is generated from said code.
The author reportedly was offended, after quiet observation of the group, that the "Geek Feminists" mocked his code, mocked his existence as a male, and never did any work on the code afterwards and never updated to include new slot machines added to the original code by author subsequently.
The author notes that he neither sought nor received any compensation for the granted license, that is was a gratuitous license, and that there never was any refutation of his default right to rescind given. (A right founded in the property law of licenses.)
The copyright owner has reportedly watched quietly as each year the "Geek Feminists" published a recount of their heroic efforts regarding his code.[2][3] Presumably he has now had enough of it all...
The author notes that the SF Conservancy attempts to construe a particular clause in the GPL version 2 license text as a "no revocation by grantor clause", however that clause states that if a licensee suffers and automatic-revocation by operation of the license, that licensees down stream from him do not suffer the same fate. The author of "GPC-Slots 2" reportedly notes that said clause does only what it claims to do: clarifies that a downstream licensee, through no fault of his own, is not penalized by the automatic revocation suffered by a licensee he gained a "sub-license" from (for lack of a better term.)
The author reportedly notes that version 3 of the GPL did not exist when he published the code, additionally the author notes that even if there was a clause not to revoke, he was paid no consideration for such a forbearance of a legal right of his and thus said clause is not operative against him, the grantor, should it exist at all.
(Editor's note: GPL version 3 contains an explicit "no-revocation-by-grantor" clause, in addition to a term-of-years that the license is granted for. Both absent in version 2 of the GPL)
The author reportedly has mulled an option to register his copyright and then to seek damages from the "Geek Feminists" if they choose to violate his copyright post-hence.
(Editors note: Statutory damages for willful copyright infringement can amount to $150,000 plus attorney's fees for post registration violations of a differing nature to pre-registration violations.)
[1]https://geekfeminism.org/2009/10/19/
[2]https://geekfeminism.org
[3]http://geekfeminism.wikia.com
GPC-Slots 2 is a text console mode casino game available for linux with various slot machines, table games, and stock market tokens for the player to test his luck. For the unlucky there is a Russian Roulette function.
[Notice: the revocation of the "Geek Feminists"'s license /just/ occurred. 2019. January.]
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Freeman on Friday January 25 2019, @09:46PM (2 children)
The idea behind Net Neutrality seemed to be quite lofty, but I was cautiously optimistic. Then I noted how all of the telephone companies, etc. got in line to chop it into little bits. That was how I knew it was almost assuredly a thing that's Good for the Customer, but bad for the bottom line. We can't have good Customer service or even Privacy for that matter. The surprise is that it ever got voted in at all. Personally, I'm of the opinion that the FCC is too small and/or has too much power.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @10:56PM (1 child)
If it was so amazing why did they not make it into a law? Instead it was a 'process law' and those can be changed as quickly as toilet paper.
The previous admin had thousands of these sorts of things. Just make up something and call it 'law'. Then bitch when the next admin comes in and says 'uh no'.
Follow the procedure apparently the DNC does not want to bother with that. Their idea of compromise is 'here it is take it or leave it' and if you leave it 'you are a racist'.
Both 'sides' of NN are a bunch of fuckups. On one side we have the 'money grubbing ISPs' who at the first hint of competition run and buy whatever congress critter they can lay their hands on. On the other side we have orgs as big as the telcos telling us how they are the bastions of free speech. When the reality is they are building a censorship machine that would make stalin and mao blush. Both are scooping up egregious amounts of info on us and trying to pretend they are doing it for our own good. So they can make sure they can show me the perfect soap advert.
But yeah go on and tell me how good and wonderful this thing was. It basically took the existing law turned it into a pretzel and then said it was 'ok' to do.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Saturday January 26 2019, @07:20AM
Obama's people wanted to pick winners & loosers. By turning our incredible internet Companies into common carriers. We were going to lose Comcast. Lose AT&T. And possibly lose Verizon. I said, "oh, hell no!" I brought in Ajit -- very smart guy. And we had some great bipartisan support in Congress. We love bipartisan. From our very loyal Republicans. And some Dems with a lot of heart. Who knew, this would be a disaster for our Country. Who knew we can't let this happen. We fought very hard. And we won. So proud of that one. Big win for America and for the American people!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Friday January 25 2019, @10:21PM
No, but the one he was "paid" to provide.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Captival on Saturday January 26 2019, @01:04AM (1 child)
Likewise, none of the supposed downsides to eliminating Net Neutrality have happened either. No mass outages, no ISPs holding sites for ransom. And meanwhile, Facebook/Twitter/Google are more than happy to censor content they don't like whether NN is in place or not. Doesn't even apply to them.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by c0lo on Saturday January 26 2019, @08:24AM
FTFY.
Things take a bit of time to break down, but break down they will.
A wonderful year for Netflix movie catalogue, I hear.
Wait a very few more years and you'll have to pay 3-4 subscriptions for the privilege of watching any movie from the past.
But yeah, no sites will be held hostage, only the paying customers.
https://www.youtube.com/@ProfSteveKeen https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Subsentient on Saturday January 26 2019, @02:59AM
I *never* would have seen this coming! I'm absolutely stunned! How shocking!
"It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society." -Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday January 26 2019, @07:10AM
For making obviously false statements in public from a trusted position.
Betraying the public trust.
IF he even gets one dime out of this: fraud
(Score: 2) by eravnrekaree on Saturday January 26 2019, @02:09PM
Because of cord cutting, revenue is also down , having less to invest. thats because companies like comcast helped subsidize the internet services with the pay TV services that people are dropping. Now people drop the pay TV services which brought in a lot of revenue and instead buy Pay TV from netflix, while still using Comcasts lines. It actually increases network load on comcast while reducing Comcasts revenue at the same time. There are two sides to many stories so this idea of "greedy cable company fleeces consumers for the hell of it" isnt always true.