Telcos May 'Agree' To Net Neutrality Legislation... That They Like
from the regulatory-capture dept
The telcos, mainly AT&T (at the time, it was still SBC) and Verizon, were really the companies that kicked off the whole "net neutrality" craze a few years back, by making totally ridiculous claims about how online services should double pay for bandwidth already paid for by users. Since then, they've fought as hard as possible against any sort of "net neutrality" legislation. However, with the FCC deciding to try to reclassify internet access and gain (somewhat limited) regulatory power over certain aspects of broadband, suddenly reports are coming out that these telcos might be willing to agree to legislation on net neutrality.It's not too hard to read between the lines here. What it means is that they've now crafted legislation that will look like net neutrality regulation, but will have so many loopholes or exceptions, that it does nothing of the sort. This has always been my fear around net neutrality legislation. The telcos have very good lobbyists, and once they got done with the law, it would almost certainly do the exact opposite of what the public was being told. Once you open up this kind of regulatory pandora's box, you're just asking for regulatory capture, where the actual text of the bill is tailored to the industry's interests.
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Filed Under: lobbyists, net neutrality, politics
Companies: at&t, verizon
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Ah,
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You mean SBC&T?
I fully expect anything they do to screw over as many consumers as possible, all while maximizing returns for their shareholders. With SBC's earlier reaquisition of nearly all the Baby Bells, it's pre-breakup Ma Bell all over again, only with the collusion of Verizon and the cable providers under the illusion of competition.
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Anyone have $100k ??
Any takers?
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Well...
No wonder they can get away with destroying internet innovations.
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"whats that? you are receiving bad connections due to the 'neutrality filter'? gee, we would like to help, but we were forced to install that by Law, so our hands are tied. Of course, if you upgraded maybe we could.."
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