FCC to preserve net neutrality, if you can afford it?

There seems to be some controversy among various Tech Sites about the ramifications of further FCC involvement in regulating, or lack thereof, the net. The FCC will have an open meeting tomorrow to propose new rules or a lack of new rules.  Which for us is all very confusing. But then again, we are talking about a government agency.

On the surface it would appear that the FCC is not going to engage in any action that will harm the consumer.  But then there are the ever present loopholes.



The most concerning loophole or undecided position is that regarding "usage based broadband" or "tiered pricing plans" for broad band users.

In a free enterprise capitalist system we would find little wrong with this approach whether we liked it or not.  After all, competition is the mother of innovation.

The PROBLEM: Many of us have few real options/choice re broad band providers as so many of them are monopolies in various areas.

In my area for instance the only real cable broad band choice is Comcast.  Our experience, as well as every other Comcast customer we have talked to in the area is crap.  We are constantly frustrated by slow service, bait and switch tactics, and come on to potentially new customers offering lower prices than that available to existing customers.

When we seek out customer support we  often find ourselves talking to someone either we do not understand or they do not understand us.  Often it is slam the phone down in frustration and just deal with the ongoing problems.

We have to wonder how much better the service might be if we had a legitimate competitor in the area. After all that is what free market capitalism is supposed to be about. 


Yes there are phone line providers that offer "Broadband" and we have yet to understand how they get away with it.

 It appears there is also some confusion has to how or if these rules will apply to wireless.

We do know this. As with everything else in America, the rich will have no issues.

We used GIGA OM for source material for this post.
Who Will Profit From Broadband Innovation?
The New Net-Neutrality Debate: What’s the Best Way to Discriminate?
When It Comes to Pain at the Pipe, Upstream Is the New Downstream
 
We were surprised that our usual go to for these types of issues TechCrunch seems to think that all is A OK and even supports tiered pricing plans.  But then they have come a long way from the little site they  used to be and  may have just forgot where it is from whence they came.

We must add a caveat here. We have many questions re this  issue and would appreciate comments that might add some clarity.Add to Technorati Favorites

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