Items tagged with Net Neutrality
What we had hoped for has come true: The Federal Communications Commission has approved net neutrality rules. Make no mistake, this is a hugely important move, and an almost surprising one given just how much it caters to keeping the Internet open. With these rules, ISPs will be unable to throttle the data that passes through their pipes, and they certainly can't charge companies for "fast lane" privileges. The Internet will be open, free... period. Well, you know, we can just ignore the fact that the government will continue to do whatever eavesdropping it wants - but that's totally unrelated to what net neutrality is about. Today's ruling means that Internet access in the US will fall under...
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All signs point to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approving the regulation of the Internet as a public utility, a reclassification under Title II that will ultimately give the FCC the power it needs to impose certain rules, the biggest of which is prohibiting Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from charging for faster lanes on the web.According to The New York Times, senior Republicans have essentially conceded that the fight with President Obama over the reclassification of the Internet is over. Furthermore, Republicans have said that they are unlikely to pass legislation that would undo the forthcoming policy shift, which is expected to occur on Thursday."We're not going to get...
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AT&T has been awarded a patent for speeding up BitTorrent and other peer-to-peer traffic. We're not sure why the U.S. telecom is suddenly interested in file sharing, other than perhaps fielding complaints for throttling such traffic, but whatever the reason, the patent would create a so-called fast lane for file sharers, provided it's ever implemented. According to TorrentFreak, unauthorized file sharing is responsible for petabytes of traffic every month. That kind of traffic can lead to congested networks, hence why ISPs sometimes throttle BitTorrent. That's likely the motivation behind AT&T's patent, though it could also be a net neutrality play. The irony here...
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The road to net neutrality and winning the Internet, as it were, won't be one that's quickly or easily traveled. On the bright side, Federal Communications Chairman (FCC) Tom Wheeler earlier this month announced quite plainly that the FCC will propose reclassifying the Internet as a utility under Title II of the 1934 Communications Act, putting it into the same category that power companies fall into. Doing so would give the FCC the power it needs to regulate Internet so that it stays free and open, but as you can imagine, telcos and ISPs aren't particularly happy about this. In fact, AT&T Chairman and CEO Randall Stephenson warned that litigation is...
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We reported earlier this week that the FCC was expected to issue a new net neutrality proposal this week, and as we can now see, it hasn't taken long to get a follow-up. In fact, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler has gone the extra mile by penning his own piece for Wired so that we could learn about this new proposal in layman's terms. As we hoped, the FCC will in fact be proposing that our Internet access will be classified as Title II, which would put it in the same category that power companies fall into. As far as many people are concerned, including myself, Title II is the only way we can guarantee that our Internet remains "open", free of so-called fast lanes. Flickr: Stephen Melkisethian In his...
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Well, here's some long overdue progress. It's expected that on Thursday, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler will issue a proposal that works in net neutrality's favor, and fortunately, a vote will take place just a few weeks later. Wheeler's proposal would make our Internet access a Title II utility. That means that it'd be regulated in much the same way as public utilities, such as power, but it's expected that this proposal will stop short of having any oversight on pricing. Flickr: Stephen Melkisethian One of the greatest benefits of putting our Internet access under Title II is that fast lanes will not be allowed, which is to say that companies will not be able to pay ISPs more for improved traffic...
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Everyone is waiting to see what the Federal Communications Commission will rule when it comes to net neutrality. However, the FCC is preparing itself for a lawsuit from cable companies in response to when it finally votes net neutrality regulations into place. At least that is what FCC chairman Tom Wheeler said earlier today.According to The Hill, Wheeler said, “The big dogs are going to sue regardless of what comes out. We need to make sure that we have sustainable rules, and that starts with making sure that we have addressed the multiplicity of issues that come along and are likely to be raised."Wheeler continued, “I want to move on open Internet rules with dispatch. I also want to have open...
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Comcast is one of two companies to have earned Consumerist's "Worst Company in America" title on more than one occasion (once in 2010 and again this year, 2014), and it looks like the company is lobbying for a third title. That is, unless there's another explanation as to how the cable giant can claim (seemingly with straight face) that it's in agreement with President Barack Obama for a free and open Internet. In case you missed it, Obama issued an open letter to the FCC urging it to enact strong net neutrality rules and to reclassify Internet service as a utility, all in support of a free and open Internet. He made clear that he's against things like paid fast lanes and throttling speeds, and...
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President Barack Obama's first order of business this week was to post an open letter urging the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to reclassify Internet service as a utility and implement strong rules in favor of net neutrality, such as disallowing the rental of premium fast lanes and banning the practice of throttling. But while it's nice to have the President in your corner on important issues like net neutrality, it's come to light that politicians on both sides of the aisle received a combined sum of more than $8 million in campaign contributions from big cable companies in the 2014 election. That figure comes from Gizmodo, which deserves kudos for collecting all the campaign contributions...
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AT&T will be pausing its current investments regarding plans to bring fiber connections to 100 cities. The reason for the halt is that the company is waiting for U.S. regulators to make a decision on how the issue of how internet service providers will be able to manage their web traffic. "We can't go out and invest that kind of money deploying fiber to 100 cities not knowing under what rules those investments will be governed," said AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson during an conference on Wednesday. “We think it is prudent to just pause and make sure we have line of sight and understanding as to what those rules would look like.” As the Federal Communications Commission continues to take...
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While the US Senate doesn’t seem to have a clue about net neutrality and the issues brought up in regards to the FCC, its “Fast Lanes” plan, and the issue of what the internet should be classified as, President Barack Obama seems to get it. The President announced his support that the internet be reclassified as a utility service in order ensure that the internet remain free and open. “’Net neutrality’ has been built into the fabric of the Internet since its creation — but it is also a principle that we cannot take for granted,” said President Obama in a statement released this morning. “We cannot allow Internet service providers (ISPs) to...
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The concept of net neutrality has been a hot-button topic over the past few years, particularly as evidence by fundamental ISP misconduct that has grown more prevalent. In addition, an increasing number of customers have found themselves caught in the crossfire between two huge corporations (ISPs and content providers especially) with little to no recourse... Net neutrality is an attractive concept, particularly if you've followed the ways the cable and telco companies have gouged customers in recent years, and I'm a fan of the idea on some level -- but only to a limited extent. There are two problems with net neutrality as its commonly proposed... Net Neutrality Won't Fix ISP Throttling, Here's...
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The concept of net neutrality has been a hot-button topic over the past few years, particularly as evidence by fundamental ISP misconduct that has grown more prevalent. In addition, an increasing number of customers have found themselves caught in the crossfire between two huge corporations (ISPs and content providers especially) with little to no recourse. Net neutrality, as it's generally explained, is the idea that no company should be allowed to treat traffic differently than other traffic. Information should flow with equal priority and consumers shouldn't end up paying more for "priority service" on certain applications. ...
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We've covered the battles between ISPs and various large-scale content providers multiple times before. From deliberately throttling Netflix users to older spats that prevented Time Warner customers from watching cable channels they'd legally paid for, these kinds of disagreements are common in America these days. A new report from M-Lab, however, illustrates the degree to which these battles can impact all of an ISPs customers, including those who don't use video on demand services like Netflix. Details on how M-Lab configured its tests are available in this PDF, but the company ran its benchmarks and monitoring by setting up multiple access points within a single location and testing network...
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