FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler: 'We Must Take The Time' To Get Net Neutrality Rules Done Correctly

[Veilex]

WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - U.S. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler on Monday welcomed President Barack Obama's comments on his work on new Internet traffic, or "net neutrality," rules, saying the agency "must take the time" to set the rules once and for all.

Obama on Monday pressured the FCC to toughen its planned Internet traffic rules, saying higher-fee "fast lanes" should be banned and Internet providers should be overseen similarly to public utilities.

Wheeler reiterated that he, too, opposed Internet fast lanes or traffic prioritization deals that may harm consumers.

*snip*

"The reclassification and hybrid approaches before us raise substantive legal questions. ... We must take the time to get the job done correctly, once and for all, in order to successfully protect consumers and innovators online."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/11/10/fcc-net-neutrality_n_6136482.html

[Thor_MN]

1. Dammit, there is no such thing as "fast lanes"!!

There is only paying to slow down your competition.

The internet is going to move as fast as possible, except where ISP's deliberately slow things down to extract more money.

[Veilex]

2. Partly true.

There's only so much bandwidth... ISPs can prioritize bandwidth so that certain individuals or corporations always have max bandwidth capacity at the expense of others. So, if during normal peak hours, all customers of an ISP get roughly 60% of peak bandwidth, an ISP might opt to shunt a portion of that bandwidth preferentially to a higher paying customer, garnering them 90% to 100% of peak bandwidth capacity and diminishing their other customer's access well bellow 60% to compensate.

A fictitious example of course, but it illustrates the point.

[Thor_MN]

3. I believe that is what I said.

"an ISP might opt to shunt a portion of that bandwidth preferentially to a higher paying customer" thereby slowing down everyone else, therefore "completely true."

[Veilex]

4. Not quite.

"There is only paying to slow down your competition." - We're not just talking competition... nor can we assume that all people universally have access to peak bandwidth to start with. Point of fact, most broadband customers already get less than optimal connection speeds for a variety of reasons... up to and including ISP throttling and packet shaping.

So, a corporation could be paying to ensure they receive optimal conditions, which is not quite the same as paying to slow down the competition.

You're statement wasn't wrong... it just wasn't quite complete.

[Thor_MN]

5. No, exactly right.

On the internet, everyone who isn't you is your competition. Eyeballs that are not looking at your content are lost opportunities.

Most people do not get anywhere near peak bandwidth because ISP in the US dole out bandwidth with a eyedropper, to be able to charge higher prices for small increases.

[Veilex]

6. Interesting perspective...

I will agree to disagree with you.

[Thor_MN]

7. OK.

your opinion is just as valuable as everyone's asshole or some saying like that.

[Veilex]

9. *nod*

Back at ya

[Thor_MN]

10. Yup

[davidpdx]

8. Throw him off a bridge