Government to Reveal Internet Policy on Tuesday

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lightbulbsocket

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It blows me away that anyone thinks this is a good idea. Show me anything that was improved by the government forcing its nose in where it didn't belong.

As if the reason that our broadband is slower here than it is in other countries can be attributed to anything other than our willingness to pay for slower speeds and bandwidth gaps. You all want faster speeds, say so with your dollars.

Write your government officials and stop this NOW!
 

nottheking

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[citation][nom]gnice3d[/nom]Nice to see public officials from the most powerful nation on the planet can't do simple 3rd grade math.[/citation]
Er, no, it's not the US government that screwed up here. It's the writers at Tom's... As usual. Their articles frequently are fraught with small typographical errors, but I'm a bit surprised they've not read the feedback to notice this yet to correct it, like they usually do.

[citation][nom]falchard[/nom]It allows them to regulate business that happens across state lines.[/citation]
One must also remember that practically all businesses deal across state lines, and most do so across national lines as well, especially given how inter-connected everything is; even if it's something minor; Heart of Atlanta Motel v. United States ruled that a motel could be regulated by Congress (and hence forced to serve non-whites) by the simple facts that it served patrons from out-of-state.

So in practice, virtually any business is subject to regulation as Congress sees fit under the Commerce Clause. I'm sure that, say, even having one's website hosted by a company in another state would make one prone to inter-state jurisdiction, since simply getting supplies cross-state does so as well.
 

nottheking

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[citation][nom]lightbulbsocket[/nom]You all want faster speeds, say so with your dollars.[/citation]
Would I be correct to judge that you don't pay for your own Internet? The basic problem is, "paying for more" isn't even an OPTION. Most places cap out at 12mbps cable and 7.1mbps DSL... And furthermore, that's merely what's advertised, with actual speeds rarely meeting what's claimed. It's much easier for a cable company like Comcast to claim it's 12m cable, and just give 6, if no one stops them...

After all, most areas have a specific company that monopolizes their broadband market, so they can safely say to their customers, "My way or the highway." That's the inherent harm monopolies impose. Such is the case that there was also an article here on Tom's noting how the FCC was unveiling their own speedtest tool, which aims to use it to crack down on ISPs that otherwise get away with such false advertising methods thanks to their monopolies.

Other countries have faster Internet... And it's NOT because they pay more for it. It's because they don't have a huge network of local monopolies and nation-wide cartels between telecoms and cable providers to avoid competition, in order to keep services down, fees up, and profits for them maxed.
 

mactruck

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I live in a Midwestern college town with 40,000 full-time residents and about 50,000 students. Qwest still cannot give me anything faster than 1.5MB down/ 512K up for $35 a month, but at least it's cheaper than $60 for 3MB/512K cable. When I moved last year Qwest charged me for both locations and it took 8 calls to their customer service line to remove the $260 overcharge which they sent to a collection agency 2 weeks after telling me everything had been taken care of and I owed them nothing.
 

mlopinto2k1

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[citation][nom]danimal_the_animal[/nom]This is retarded.Saying it will increase by 25% in 10 years???The government is blowing smoke because the speed will increase anyhow due to better technology.what we need is UPSPEED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!![/citation]You can get faster uploads speeds! Wowzers!
 

dbrooks08

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[citation][nom]dawgsoverrebs[/nom]While I'm sick of super slow speeds at jacked up prices the fact that the government is even involved with this is infuriating. When will we see that its just another way to control our every move[/citation]
I would say that the reason they are interfering is because ISPs are taking so long and slow. Had ISPs been more competitive with the global Internet speeds i dont think you would see this Broadband plan, but when push comes to shove someones gotta do it. I do wonder if this is all that is in the bill because i have never seen a bill this simple in American Government lol
 

Xenophage

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I like all the anti-government sentiment on here. Are geeks just more likely to be libertarian? I think so. A lot of good points: Regulations like this will force prices higher, limit availability, and probably leave us worse off in 10 years than we would have been otherwise. How far has broadband come in the LAST 10 years? I was using a 56k modem! PLUS the FCC is unconstitutional and anathema to a free market, responsible for all our radio monopolies AND the fact that I can't get a good transmitter for my car stereo anymore. End the FCC!
 
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Yeah the US was also going to pay Social Security back for the 30 years that congress raided the surplus money. Now Social Security is running a deficit not a surplus and, go figure, congress has no money.

So yeah, I won't be holding my breath for this 10 year plan.

It is always easy to say you are going to do something in the future when you know you won't be around when it is supposed to happen.
 

xzJoel

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For all of you constitutional law experts, the interstate commerce clause allows congress to regulate certain types of congress, it does not allow the FCC to regulate commerce. If the question was, "Where does the constitution permit congress to regulate commerce", you'd all be right. Since that wasn't the question, you are all incorrect. The FCC is an administrative agency and such would have been considered an unconstitutional delegation of congressional authority. It was the presidency of FDR that changed the way the Supreme Court viewed administrative agencies, it was not the introduction of new constitutional language.

Read more constitutional law and fewer Tom's articles before you go spewing about where the FCC derives its authority from.
 

Clintonio

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Dear Americans. 50% of you are insane and shooting yourselves in the foot. 50% of you aren't.

Thank Britain for our government intervention and regulation, for it, I have 15Mb/s internet for a cheap $30. Hell I even get 3Mb/s almost everywhere I go with mobile internet for just... $22. I don't even live in a city, just a medium sized town. Oh yeah, and the speeds I actually get? As advertised. Down to 80% of advertised at peek times. Beats 3Mb/s for $60.
PS. Unlimited downloads.
 

dbrooks08

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[citation][nom]hollowtek[/nom]About damn time. I can name about 10 third world countries that will blow us away on Internet speeds alone.[/citation]
LOL lets hear them :)
 

requiemsallure

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IMO the most interesting part about this is that cisco is making routers that are 12x faster than competitors, thats a pretty nice jump if you think about it.
 

iocedmyself

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The united states is ranked 17th in average broadband speed but #1 in cost per/Mbit transfer speed. But i don't much care about download speed when broadband carries are determined to cap monthly bandwidth.

Comcast is the only highspeed provider available in the particular area of Houston that i live in, though FIoS is available like in the next town 5 miles away. Comcast's old high tier speed was like 16 down and 5 up for $60 a month, now they are starting to offer 50 down and 8up for $85 or something.

As it stands now i get 32 Mbit down (4000Kb/s down) and 4.5Mbit up (550-600KB/s up) for under $60 a month,with a 250gig monthly bandwidth cap. That's for 3 people, 4 desktops 2 laptops a homeserver and a bussiness server.

Something like netflix HD streaming eats through 3.5 GIGs when you watch a 22 minute HD sitcom, twice that for a prime time drama so you can't even watch one show everyday of the month. At those download speeds it's possible to eat your month 250 gig cap in about 17.5 hours.

Doesn't matter how much you pay comcast won't let you get more then 250 gig a month, and if you exceed that limit 2 months in a row you get your internet connection suspended for 1 year.

 
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I couldn't resist to brag about my Internet connection =]
My Internet connection 100 Mbps (up/down) in Lithuania, 6 Mbps (up/down) overseas in "peak" time (10:00-24:00), 40 Mbps in night. Cost - 60 LTL/month (about 24 USD). There are some speed limitations for international Internet if I download/upload high amounts of data in peak time, but they all are gone next day and no limitations on night.
Sorry for my English (for all those English linguists, that read TH) :)
 
[citation][nom]dthatcher7[/nom]@Shin0bi272: Interstate Commerce Clause.[/citation]
The Interstate Commerce Commission is, on the other hand, one of the most abused parts of the Federal government, used to control everything.
The Clause was once used to justify shutting down legal marijuana in, I think, California, on the grounds that it would drive down the price of illegal pot in other states.
 
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