Comcast Set to Acquire Time Warner. Where the Hell is Net Neutrality?

This is f**king ridiculous.

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Thanks for posting that, Borstal. There are many people out there who don't realize how dangerous a "monopoly" over internet and television access could be and how it will impact us for generations to come. We need Net Neutrality. It's time.

No, it's not..

Net neutrality (also network neutrality or Internet neutrality) is the principle that Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, and modes of communication.

This concept also applies to content and access to television.

Yes. That was the definition from Wikipedia. Your point?

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Liberty Cable has freed 609 East 68th Street (just a little joke for long time New Yorkers)

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When I saw this news flash across my phone yesterday I couldn't ****ing believe it. Cable companies already have what amount to effective monopolies on broadband accesss in most neighborhoods in which they operate. Comcast is already a behemoth, but this deal puts them on a whole other level. With all this consolidation and lack of true competition for broadband access, these companies will be even less motivated to innovate and improve broadband access in the US. The US, the inventor of the internet, is now ranked 31st in the world for average download speed--behind countries like Sweden, Japan, South Korea and even Romania and most of them provide these much faster services at significantly lower prices than US providers.

Short of a sea change in the way ISPs work in the US, it seems like the only thing that will allow the US to catch up is massive public works programs creating high-speed fiber networks. Yes, more government, not less. (Sorry, Repubs!)

BTW, NPR's Fresh Air just had a very interesting interview with Susan Crawford, author of Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly Power in which she explains why it's so dangerous for both consumers and for the future of the US economy for us to be falling so far behind other developed nations. I wish they'd conducted the interview after this latest merger news. Crawford described one city--I think it was Stockholm--where when you move into a new home you would have 5 or 6 different broadband ISPs to choose from. That level of competition is unfathomable in the US. And, as she pointed out in her interview, Sweden is very similar to the US in terms in population sparsity. The whole thing is just maddening.




FRESH AIR: When It Comes To High-Speed Internet, U.S. 'Falling Way Behind'

Updated On: 2/13/14 at 05:38 PM

And yet, Goth, the free market is the very reason Time Warner Cable holds such a massive monopoly in Manhattan (and now Comcast) with little incentive or need to invest in and improve on their infrastructure or services. They don't need to because YOU are at their mercy. I'm sorry, but that's just not right. In Manhattan -- of all places -- building tenants and owners should have competitive options. Not just one mandated internet, phone, and cable provider as such is the case in thousands of neighborhoods throughout Manhattan and elsewhere.

Don't mean to put too fine a point on it, Goth, but please check out the handiwork of Time Warner at the jump. I have absolutely no confidence that Comcast will avoid similar bullying tactics against municipalities that follow Wilson, NC's suit in attempting to roll their own broadband platforms.

The corporate oligarchs (and their mouthpieces) can't have it both ways. On the one hand they chant the tired party line of "less gov't, more innovation & jobs". Yet, on the other hand they buy legislation to thwart competition in their protected territories at every turn.

It's a game that they play all too well.


Big Carriers Kill Local Broadband

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Updated On: 2/13/14 at 11:54 PM

If there weren't so many government regulations stopping people from starting new businesses, then there would be healthy competition and you wouldn't need net neutrality laws.

"Healthy"? In what America do you believe the competition would be "healthy"? Certainly not the one in which we live.

OMG! OBAMACARE!

I can't believe you went there. Well, I guess I can, but it's still hilarious.

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"I was referring to a massive public works program in which local, state and Federal government agencies effectively bypass the private sector and create the infrastructure that create a TRULY high speed fiber network."

HorseTears, who do you think is going to pay for this? Where do you think government money comes from? As Margaret Thatcher once said (loosely quoting): The problem with government is that it eventually runs out of other people's money.

In addition, with all we've learned recently about the NSA, do you really want the government owning the highway to which you do all your internet work?

Plus, we've seen what government does with a healthcare website. Why do you want to entrust these people with anymore of your life?

Once again, if the government didn't have laws on top of laws, there would be more small businesses creating competition. In NYC, Liberty Cable used to be the competition to Time Warner. But NYC has made it so difficult to do business, that nobody wants to even make the attempt anymore.

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OMG! My cable bill is already a $140.00 per month. I can just imagine how much it rises now!