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The new rules aim to ensure that Internet service providers (ISPs) cannot discriminate between content-makers by blocking or deliberately slowing some content while offering prioritization for those willing or able to pay. Mobile data service for smartphones and tablets also are being placed under the new rules. The directive also includes requirements to protect consumer privacy and to ensure Internet service is available for people with disabilities and in remote areas.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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The new rules aim to ensure that Internet service providers (ISPs) cannot discriminate between content-makers by blocking or deliberately slowing some content while offering prioritization for those willing or able to pay. Mobile data service for smartphones and tablets also are being placed under the new rules. The directive also includes requirements to protect consumer privacy and to ensure Internet service is available for people with disabilities and in remote areas.

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So, basically, you will be able to download FFF.net at the same speed as before, instead of being bumped to a snail's-pace by Netflix.

Is that a bad thing?

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

To quote Peter Parker...I missed the part where that's my problem.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:


Speed

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http://royal.pingdom.com/2010/11/12/real-connection-speeds-for-interne
t-users-across-the-world/

Cost (compared the average EU)
http://www.newamerica.org/static_html/oti_coc2014/2014_US_EU_compariso
n_median.svg
http://www.newamerica.org/oti/the-cost-of-connectivity-2014/


How does having slow, expensive internet service boost competitiveness and innovation? Requiring net neutrality only introduces competition back into the telecom world, and isn't that the basis of capitalism?

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Sorry, Big Government is not the harbinger of competition that you seem to think it is.

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Shirley, it must be the same enormous project to revamp every tower in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea as it must be in USA.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

I've gone from no internet, dial up, DSL , and high speed ... I swear, the spoiled, entitlement mindset of some people baffles me. Healthcare & high speed internet are NOT F-ing Rights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

I've gone from no internet, dial up, DSL , and high speed ... I swear, the spoiled, entitlement mindset of some people baffles me. Healthcare & high speed internet are NOT F-ing Rights!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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I switched from "high-speed" 6 mbps to Xfinity 50 mbps. There's hardly any noticeable difference, but the good news is I'm paying less now than I was before. Free market capitalism at its best.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
Govt take over of the internet isn't going to ignite new competition.

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Sorry, Big Government is not the harbinger of competition that you seem to think it is.

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Who do you think designed the internet anyway? (No, not Al Gore.) Do you KNOW? If you did, you wouldn't have made such an ignorant statement!

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Shirley, it must be the same enormous project to revamp every tower in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea as it must be in USA.

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Do you even know how to read? They don't use towers, they use fiberoptic cable.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:

I saw a blue dress w/ black stripes.


Others saw a white dress with gold stripes.

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Originally posted by AURaptor:
WTH is " The Talk " , and why are you watching ?

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:

Gilbert is on maternity leave with her wife

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Sorry, Big Government is not the harbinger of competition that you seem to think it is.-JSF

Who do you think designed the internet anyway? (No, not Al Gore.) Do you KNOW? If you did, you wouldn't have made such an ignorant statement! -SIGNY

Shirley you jest. Perhaps you are merely pretending to be blissfully ignorant while asking if somebody else is ignorant. Could that be?
For those reading and interested, the origins of the internet which Algore invented arose from a project within DARPA (yes, the D stands for Defense, which translates to MILITARY)...

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to provide exclusively to research facilities, and only between them - the military did not intend to freely share worldwide all of it's military secrets (aka Advancements), as Siggy would seem to have you believe - a SECURE and high-speed communications system and protocol. This was highly exclusive, highly exclusionary, available to only projects and research which fell within the DARPA umbrella, and was paid for and utilized exclusively for Defense Research and among Defense-funded facilities.

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- blah blah blah- JSF

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Shirley, it must be the same enormous project to revamp every tower in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea as it must be in USA.

Do you even know how to read? They don't use towers, they use fiberoptic cable. - SIGNY

Shirley you must have a point here.
somewhere.
It must be immeasurably easier to replace every fiber instead of merely the box in the tower.

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Today's users of mobile devices depend on wireless connections for their voice, data and even video communications. Even homes and businesses may depend on wireless, especially those who are not in urban or suburban areas served by FTTH (fiber to the home) or FTTC (fiber to the curb.) Some of us in the business now use the term FTTW for fiber to wireless, since wireless depends on fiber for the communications backbone and increasingly the connection to the wireless antennas, no matter what kinds of wireless we use.

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(CNN) -- People in the United States basically invented the Internet. So U.S. connections must be the fastest and cheapest in the world, right?

Not so much.

Broadband Internet speeds in the United States are only about one-fourth as fast as those in South Korea, the world leader, according to the Internet monitoring firm Akamai.

And, as if to add insult to injury, U.S. Internet connections are more expensive than those in South Korea, too.

The slower connection here in the U.S. costs about $45.50 per month on average, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. In South Korea, the much-faster hookup costs $17 per month less. An average broadband bill there runs about $28.50.

So why is U.S. Internet so much slower and pricier than broadband connections in South Korea?....


Countries with fast, cheap Internet connections tend to have more competition.

In the U.S., competition among companies that provide broadband connections is relatively slim. Most people choose between a cable company and a telephone company when they sign up for Internet service.

In other countries, including South Korea, the choices are more varied....

There is vigorous debate in the telecommunications world about the role "open networks" have in creating fast, cheap Internet connections.

The idea behind an "open" system is essentially that, for a fee, broadband providers must share the cables that carry Internet signals into people's homes.

Companies that build those lines typically oppose this sharing. A number of governments, including South Korea and Japan and several European countries, have experimented with or embraced infrastructure-sharing as a way to get new companies to compete in the broadband market.

The U.S. does not require broadband providers to share their lines, and some experts cite Korea's relative openness as one reason the Internet there is so much faster and cheaper than it is here.

The most important thing is that countries create a way for companies to enter the broadband market without having to pay for huge amounts of infrastructure, said Faris.

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Originally posted by Jongsstraw:

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Originally posted by JEWELSTAITEFAN:
Gilbert is on maternity leave with her wife

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What was it Mal said ... "Oh God, I can't know that!"

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Originally posted by OLDGUY:
come a day..won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about..

ya know.. I've started, more than once, to open a new thread asking if us Whedon fans think that Joss would create Firefly today...I am speaking about how so many hollywood were so ready to make shows like Boston Legal and even Firefly where the big federal govt is bad and should be mocked..when it was Bush in office...but they go quiet, and even defensive now that Obama has been in place.

Don't get me wrong.. some of my favorite shows were Boston Legals and of course my beloved Firefly...not saying i support Bush or Obama..but saying that the episodes, the very underpinning thoughts of the stories are even more appropriate today than they were a decade ago...
Govt's hand in the Web will not end well... no matter who is in the Oval..bank on it baby!

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Originally posted by OLDGUY:
come a day..won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about..

ya know.. I've started, more than once, to open a new thread asking if us Whedon fans think that Joss would create Firefly today...I am speaking about how so many hollywood were so ready to make shows like Boston Legal and even Firefly where the big federal govt is bad and should be mocked..when it was Bush in office...but they go quiet, and even defensive now that Obama has been in place.

Don't get me wrong.. some of my favorite shows were Boston Legals and of course my beloved Firefly...not saying i support Bush or Obama..but saying that the episodes, the very underpinning thoughts of the stories are even more appropriate today than they were a decade ago...
Govt's hand in the Web will not end well... no matter who is in the Oval..bank on it baby!

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Originally posted by SIGNYM:

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Originally posted by OLDGUY:
come a day..won't be room for naughty men like us to slip about..

ya know.. I've started, more than once, to open a new thread asking if us Whedon fans think that Joss would create Firefly today...I am speaking about how so many hollywood were so ready to make shows like Boston Legal and even Firefly where the big federal govt is bad and should be mocked..when it was Bush in office...but they go quiet, and even defensive now that Obama has been in place.

Don't get me wrong.. some of my favorite shows were Boston Legals and of course my beloved Firefly...not saying i support Bush or Obama..but saying that the episodes, the very underpinning thoughts of the stories are even more appropriate today than they were a decade ago...
Govt's hand in the Web will not end well... no matter who is in the Oval..bank on it baby!

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I think neither of us knows what's in the FCC proposals, since none of us has read it.
As a reviewer of many things technical, the devil is often in the details. However, in the face of a clear danger to a cost-neutral internet (which is what the multi-tier pricing structure would mean) any action to thwart that action is a good one until demonstrated otherwise.

Yes, I know- the government has slipped a lot of "actions" into the queue on the basis of responding to a "threat" ... The Clone of the Revenge (Iraq War II), the Patriot Act, the GWOT, Obamacare, the bank bailout .... but once in a while, by accident, the gubmint actually manages to do something useful. This may be one of those times.

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