What the Net Neutrality Rollback Means for Netflix Users

[BoomerFan]

What the Net Neutrality Rollback Means for Netflix Users

FCC To Roll Back Net Neutrality Policies

Under President Donald Trump’s newly-minted chairman, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is quickly working to eliminate regulations created to ensure internet service providers (ISPs) grant equal access to all web content — the rules commonly known as “net neutrality.”

The shift is part of an unspooling of FCC policies from the Obama administration. On Friday, new chairman Ajit Pai announced the end of “Lifeline,” a relatively new federal program created to help subsidize home internet and phone services for low-income households. Almost 13 million Americans were estimated to be eligible for the credit.

The action signals a major breakaway from the Obama-era FCC, which treated the internet as a public utility, creating policies like net neutrality to support that thinking. Pai, who previously served as a FCC Commissioner, has long embraced an adversarial view of many of those regulations. In a speech in December prior to his nomination as FCC chair, he expressed optimism that many of the FCC’s “outdated and unnecessary regulations” would soon be eliminated.

Wait, What Exactly is Net Neutrality?

Have you used Netflix lately? If the answer is yes, today’s news could affect how you stream.

Without net neutrality, an ISP like Optimum, Verizon, or Comcast could potentially slow down or block access to services like Netflix or Hulu, as many ISPs run competitive streaming services to which they hope to draw consumers. Comcast, for example, has its Xfinity TV app.

By slowing down stream speeds for services like Netflix, ISPs can give themselves key advantages. First, frustrated users are likely to flock to their streaming products, and secondly, Netflix — unwilling to lose any of its 93 million subscribers — will be forced to pay the ISP for access to faster speeds.

This is called “paid prioritization,” and it’s a major threat to smaller, start-up businesses, as it forces them to pony up to reach audiences. “It becomes anti-competitive if they are charging websites for access to customers, because the service provider has a large market share, as opposed to charging for real costs for managing the connection,” John Bergmayer, senior staff attorney at consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge told U.S. News & World Report after the net neutrality rule was first passed.

(click on the link at the top for the full article)

[GMDino]

He sure is a man of the forgotten people.

If they were forgotten because they were billionaires.

[SunsetBengal]

Net Neutrality may be one of the greatest, on the short list of things that we gained from the Obama years.  I find it a shame that people need to phrase the conversation in a way that targets specific groups, such as "OMG, you might get your Netflix access throttled!", rather than just bring it up in plain terms. 

Understand, I have never read the entire Net Neutrality bill in full, who has?  Other than a bunch of lawyers that wrote the damn thing, we really don't know what the hell is in the fine print.  Here's to hoping that one day all bills will be written on one page, clearly outlaying everything that they intend to affect, in plain English, for the lay person to understand.

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(02-09-2017, 08:47 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Net Neutrality may be one of the greatest, on the short list of things that we gained from the Obama years.  I find it a shame that people need to phrase the conversation in a way that targets specific groups, such as "OMG, you might get your Netflix access throttled!", rather than just bring it up in plain terms. 

Understand, I have never read the entire Net Neutrality bill in full, who has?  Other than a bunch of lawyers that wrote the damn thing, we really don't know what the hell is in the fine print.  Here's to hoping that one day all bills will be written on one page, clearly outlaying everything that they intend to affect, in plain English, for the lay person to understand.

[Millhouse]

This is one thing I agreed with Obama on. Internet should be treated like an utility and everyone should have access to it, or at least that should be the goal.

If they do go through with it, there will be a major backlash coming even from many on the right, as there should be. But Trump wont care. He believes all regulations are a bad thing unless they help out his billionaire club.

[*bfine32*]

Will this affect the streaming speed of Porn Hub in any way?

[*TheLeonardLeap*]

(02-09-2017, 11:15 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Will this affect the streaming speed of Porn Hub in any way?

Probably? I doubt they'll pay as much as Netflix to get the fast internet, or if they do, it'll be a "you must pay a subscription" (dun dun dunnnnn) for the faster speed they have to pay for.

[Benton]

(02-09-2017, 08:47 PM)SunsetBengal Wrote: Net Neutrality may be one of the greatest, on the short list of things that we gained from the Obama years.  I find it a shame that people need to phrase the conversation in a way that targets specific groups, such as "OMG, you might get your Netflix access throttled!", rather than just bring it up in plain terms. 

Understand, I have never read the entire Net Neutrality bill in full, who has?  Other than a bunch of lawyers that wrote the damn thing, we really don't know what the hell is in the fine print.  Here's to hoping that one day all bills will be written on one page, clearly outlaying everything that they intend to affect, in plain English, for the lay person to understand.

to the bold, I think that's because lawmakers use such deceptive terms. Like net neutrality. There's nothing neutral about it, providers can charge whoever whatever they want.

or in Kentucky the recent passage of right to work. I live in a small town with several international plants. I was amazed at how many union guys supported it until you told them it was legislation designed to end unions. Or "school choice" which is really more about shifting public tax dollars to private schools. The only choice there is how the private school is going to spend the influx of tax money.

headlines have to be more attention grabbing because people are paying less attention, and lawmakers are getting away with being amazingly deceptive.

[Rotobeast]

(02-09-2017, 11:15 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Will this affect the streaming speed of Porn Hub in any way?

No, but PH will require users to utilize a site-specific "tool".
The device will generate electricity using the natural motion of the user and feed it back into the US power supply.
PH will be able to pay for any bandwidth necessary and remove our dependency of fossil fuels from our nation.

Thank you Bfine.
I've always regarded you as a hero.
:andy:

[NATI BENGALS]

(02-09-2017, 11:15 PM)bfine32 Wrote: Will this affect the streaming speed of Porn Hub in any way?

Ha ha ha, I wish we could all laugh at jokes about the fascist leadership cracking down on the most common method of communication used by the foolish people. 

Lucky you. One of the few the proud the chosen billionaires.  I will be super glad when they control any and all communication. 

Obama tries to make open sharing of information a public utility. Trump makes it about how much money you have. After all that is what the constitution says. You have to pay more to get the facts, and buy Ivanka gear it is super sweet. 

I just hope this law buries the new law that congressional republicans voted for saying oil companies don't have to disclose payments from foreign governments. Right around the same time Tillerson became sec of state. Nothing shady there. Lets take a look at those hillary emailsssss. omg!!


PS. I don't know anything about this. I just like disagreeing with you because you are supposedly a republican who isn't a Trumpet even though you have defended everything he has done. 

[Au165]

This is going to get interesting. We see in NY the AG is suing what was Time Warner for what basically amounts to fraud for not delivering the speeds they promoted. Anyone who has ever dealt with an ISP knows they use a sneaky asterisk that says "up to" whatever the speed is. This case could establish how far ISPs can push that little set of fine print.

That applies to this case for a very specific reason. As a customer we are paying the ISP to deliver information to us at a certain speed, if they are controlling the pipe at both ends they are basically once again defrauding the consumer if they do not deliver the content at the rate which they claim to the customer. If you tell me that I can download something at a rate of 30 Mbps down, yet you have throttled the provider to less than what I can conceivably download at a given time then you have throttled me below my paid threshold. While it isn't a big deal yet as even Netflix only moves content in HD around 5 Mbps, as that goes up over time it could cause larger issues to ISPs.

Honestly I see a supreme court case coming in the next few years that will establish internet providers as public utilities. It will be tough to argue that it is not a necessity in today's age and therefor should be available. With many ISP's having monopolies over areas it also would be easy to prove it should be regulated like other utilities who have monopolies sanctioned by the government.,

[*bfine32*]

(02-10-2017, 03:16 AM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: Ha ha ha, I wish we could all laugh at jokes about the fascist leadership cracking down on the most common method of communication used by the foolish people. 

Hell me too. They might find life to be more enjoyable.

[CKwi88]

(02-10-2017, 01:24 AM)Rotobeast Wrote: No, but PH will require users to utilize a site-specific "tool".
The device will generate electricity using the natural motion of the user and feed it back into the US power supply.
PH will be able to pay for any bandwidth necessary and remove our dependency of fossil fuels from our nation.

Thank you Bfine.
I've always regarded you as a hero.
:andy:

Clean energy AND masturbation?

Republicans will never allow it

[*bfine32*]

(02-10-2017, 03:16 AM)NATI BENGALS Wrote: PS. I don't know anything about this. I just like disagreeing with you because you are supposedly a republican who isn't a Trumpet even though you have defended everything he has done. 

I have not defended everything Trump has done; it just appears that way by comparison in this forum. Off the top of my head I have been critical of his treatment of members of the Judicial Branch, maintaining an interest in his companies, and his slight of McCain. I'm sure there are more if I cared to research.

It's just that I really don't give a damn if he pointed at some blank folders, tweeted about A but not B, made Iran ban our wrestlers, wants Russia as an ally, talked dirty with another dude on a charter bus 10 years ago, thinks he won the popular vote, was born rich, had 3 wives, has a hot daughter, has sons... (infinity)

[GMDino]

While looking for something else I found an article from right after the election that had this image:



Wonder what his stance now is?

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/111716/how-trumps-presidency-might-affect-net-neutrality.asp

Quote:Trump's stance

The report released by Information Technology and Innovation Foundation in November 2016 analyzes Trump’s position on technology and innovation policy. It highlights his generally conservative approach to reducing business taxes and regulations, as well as supporting “homeland security with potential effects on weakening encryption”, both of which probably create concern about the future of Open Internet under his presidency. His highly-cited and probably only public statement on the topic is a Tweet dated November 2014, that reads: "Obama's attack on the internet is another top down power grab. Net neutrality is the Fairness Doctrine. Will target conservative media."

Currently it is hard to predict Trump's approach to the topic in the following four years. However, he will have to show his hand on this issue sooner rather than later. Soon after he takes office in January, he will have to address the FCC's Nov. 9 claim that AT&T might be violating net neutrality regulations with its "Data Free TV" feature of its DIRECTV app.
 

[CageTheBengal]

Way to look our for the rural voters who brought you into office Trump! Oh wait they don't even have high speed internet.

[CageTheBengal]

(02-12-2017, 11:35 AM)GMDino Wrote: While looking for something else I found an article from right after the election that had this image:



Wonder what his stance now is?

http://www.investopedia.com/articles/insights/111716/how-trumps-presidency-might-affect-net-neutrality.asp

It literally has zero to do with the conservative media. That's the easiest song to play though to get the sheep to dance.

[GMDino]

(02-14-2017, 01:48 PM)CageTheBengal Wrote: It literally has zero to do with the conservative media. That's the easiest song to play though to get the sheep to dance.

Exactly.  Either Trump doesn't understand (no surprise) or he just spits out whatever he thinks right then (no surprise).

[Benton]

(02-14-2017, 01:46 PM)CageTheBengal Wrote: Way to look our for the rural voters who brought you into office Trump! Oh wait they don't even have high speed internet.

I was talking about that with some folks the other day. Their community only has high speed internet in a community that's geographically less than 1/16th of the county, and has about 1/8th the county's population. Their thinking was Trump is going to direct internet providers to make their service faster.

I got a glazed look when I started explaining that would take fiber optic line installation, which they aren't going to do to a population that's less than 10,000 spread out across such a wide geographic area. So I switched and told them it would be up to providers to decide if they had to pay for Netflix or Yahoo the same way the cable company — not the president — decides if you pay for HBO or The Weather Channel.

Boom! They got it then. And one of them actually said "Well what the hell good is [Trump] then?"

I thought it was a good time to talk about the duties of the executive branch, but it took me 10 minutes to get that idea broken down.

[treee]

Glad to see posters from both sides of the aisle agreeing how imperative net neutrality is. It all comes down to the free flow of information...