The Federal Court Trashes Net Neutrality... and the Internet
http://www.opednews.com/articles/The-Federal-Court-Trashes-by-Alfredo-Lopez-Internet_Internet_Internet-Access_Internet-Censorship-140131-682.html
The Federal Court Trashes Net Neutrality... and the Internet
OpEdNews Op Eds 1/31/2014 at 10:25:34
By Alfredo Lopez
~snip~
Net Neutrality is the principle that service providers --the people who actually provide the connections to the Internet, like Verizon and Comcast -- can't discriminate in the delivery of content or provision of access based on user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, and modes of communication. If you go on-line, you can reach everything anyone else can. It's been law since 2010, mirroring the growth in popularity of high-speed Internet, and the telecommunications companies have been fighting it ever since.
Essentially, the court's recent decision ruled that the Federal Communications Commission does not have the standing to enforce Net Neutrality on Internet high-speed (or broadband) providers. So, as of now, there is no Net Neutrality and that has caused a major pushback among media and activists who are alternately frightened, shocked, and downright angry at the court, the corporations and, mainly, the FCC.
But what has gone largely unnoticed or at least uncommented is that the court decision implicitly gives the FCC enhanced power over Internet functioning without any oversight or restraint. In short, they took away our freedom and replaced it with greater government control.
This is the the most serious blow ever to Internet freedom and the political work we do on it. To figure out how we fix this, we need to understand how we got here and that's a complicated and sometimes apparently self-contradictory lesson in the problems of putting politically-connected, unprincipled operatives in charge of your communications policies. It also demonstrates how huge corporations can push the government around and how a government agency can seem to lose power while actually gaining complete control.
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I have a Frontier landline.
I get my Internet service through Frontier.
There is no cable in my area.
There is no other landline provider in my area.
The only other option for Internet is satellite.
I called Frontier.
My Internet connection was so bad I couldn't even do a speed test.
The technician told me I was not receiving 48% of my packets.
He explained that you receive your information in multiple packets.
The acceptable LOSS is 3%.
My decibels were at 56.
They should be in the 15 point range.
The technician put in a work ticket.
Someone was suppose to contact me in 48 hours.
No one did.
I called again and gave them my ticket number.
They said it would be 48 hours and someone would call me if they needed to come to my home.
They also said they would call after the repairs were done.
No one called.
I waited an extra 48 hours and called again.
This time I was told my ticket was finished.
I was transferred to customer service.
I was informed that there was too much traffic and congestion and there was nothing they could do.
I was asked if I wanted to cancel my service.
I was told that speed and service were not guaranteed and again asked if I would like to cancel my service.
I was told that I was receiving 70 of my speed and asked if I would like to cancel my service.
I replied that Frontier doesn't seem to guarantee anything and hung up in total frustration.
It was one of the strangest business calls.
Do you want to cancel your service seem to be the extent of help that I was being offered.
Monopolies are great. 
