FTC Says 'Slow Down' on Net Neutrality

Bushido Hacks writes "The Washington Post reports that the Federal Trade Commission has fumbled the Network Neutrality Act, again, as of this past week. However, the FTC defended its actions saying that their decision was not a give-in to the big telecom and cable companies. Instead, the FTC report urges caution on Network Neutrality Regulation. While this news is disappointing, the FTC's decision appears to be thought out and a message to remind people to not let the subject of Net Neutrality be abandoned by the general public so corporations could undermine the interest of consumers. We discussed the row this created, but with constant stalling tactics being employed here how long will it be before net neutrality opponents craft their own legislation?"

Re:Let them get rid of their own network neutralit

[TubeSteak]

Your idea of the market players regulating each other seems sound enough.

I can only attribute your agreement with the GP to ignorance.

Most people do NOT have a choice when it comes to broadband. In many areas with relatively dense populations, the local cable/telco provider is given a monopoly, either by the town or the developer.

Ontop of that, the Internet as we know it, is an oligopoly run by a handful of national providers who get their bandwidth from a cartel of 9 Tier 1 ISPs and half-a-dozen or so important Tier 2 ISPs.

Because of this, no matter what you & the GP seem to think will happen, Google can't fly in and save the day by lighting up dark fiber. The "free" market is not so free.

Re:Pretty one-sided coverage, here.

[vertinox]

Are you guys SURE you want the US federal government legislating this?

Not really, but unfortunately they have been legislating and funding the internet from the get go.

Most of the telcoms have basically been willing to take millions of dollars worth of tax breaks and tax payer money from back in the 90's when they were basically subsidizing fiber roll out.

So in reality, telcoms were and currently are basically government regulated monopolies.

If you don't like net neutrality, they the only real solution would be to tear down the barriers of entry, break up the telcoms (again) and make a rule they are never to merge never ever again under no circumstances under pain of death.

Then we can talk about no government regulation of the internet's backbone.

Until then... They are simply government mandated monopolies.

Re:Let them get rid of their own network neutralit

[RoboStone]

Any ISP logs every piece of information, remember the AOL search logs?