Tech luminaries call net neutrality vote an 'imminent threat'

Re:Tech luminaries call net neutrality vote an 'imminent thr... by 8ytecoder on Monday December 11, 2017 @02:30PM (#15899584)

Most people are not going to realise the pain. It's one of those issues that affect people but they would never understand why. In spite of scientists saying climate change is real and it's affecting us directly (floods, heat waves,...etc) people still can't put 2 and 2 together to ask for change. I don't think ISPs would be dumb enough to drastically become cable-operatorish and charge customers for every website. The pain will be felt by small companies and competition (albeit indirectly).

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tech luminaries call net neutrality vote an 'imminent thr... by takeda on Monday December 11, 2017 @02:59PM (#15899871)

I'm fairly sure they early stages will even look like it was a good change, making some people wonder why were they even fighting it.

For example excluding affiliated sites from any caps (let's stream 4k movies from Hulu, RedBox etc even if you have lower bandwidth than necessary, you would be excluded for these services) or have data caps not apply for affiliated sites.

For an extra fee you could also get similar treatment for non-affiliated sites (Netflix, YouTube, Amazon Video etc).

In the mean time everything else will gradually is getting slower and slower. Tough luck for any new startup trying to enter the market. As it already is difficult right now, it will be nearly impossible after that.

The absolutely bad things (throttling/blocking/modifying content of sites the companies don't agree with) will happen much much later.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tech luminaries call net neutrality vote an 'imminent thr... by nerfhammer on Monday December 11, 2017 @07:03PM (#15901959)

More like they use the fees from content providers to make service nearly free, then they'll be able to plausibly say that bringing back net neutrality will make internet service more expensive. Then, no one will want to bring net neutrality back.

Like how cell phones are "free" so it's impossible to buy one without a contract.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tech luminaries call net neutrality vote an 'imminent thr... by astrange on Tuesday December 12, 2017 @05:17AM (#15904358)

None of the major US carriers have contracts anymore, since the start of this year.

https://www.fiercewireless.com/wireless/verizon-kills-two-ye...

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tech luminaries call net neutrality vote an 'imminent thr... by Old_Thrashbarg on Monday December 11, 2017 @04:22PM (#15900572)

I agree the effects won't be felt directly and probably not associated with the correct source. For example, if tiny startups have a hard time getting off the ground against competitors who have market power to get good rates from the ISPs, it will be hard to even notice the lack of something disruptive.

For example, will people notice the lack of a really great Netflix competitor that would have gotten off the ground? What about the new best search engine to topple Google Search that died out of the gates?

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Tech luminaries call net neutrality vote an 'imminent thr... by CamperBob2 on Monday December 11, 2017 @04:26PM (#15900602)

Most people are not going to realise the pain. It's one of those issues that affect people but they would never understand why.

I disagree. Pai and his GOP sponsors are making enemies of people who buy bandwidth by the terabyte-second. That's much worse than making enemies with people who buy ink by the barrel, as the old saying went.

Any negative consequences to this decision, real or imagined, absolutely will come back to haunt the Republicans.

That's why I don't understand why they're doing this. They are pissing off millions of people who wouldn't otherwise bother to vote against them.

[ Parent | on HN ]