Hotscot

Dear Senator Ted Cruz, I'm going to explain to you how Net Neutrality ACTUALLY works - The Oatmeal

sir_eccles

As the saying goes, if Obama endorsed breathing then Ted Cruz would hold his breath.

Ted Cruz may also have pocketed thousands in contributions from certain nameless corporations that start with C.

Michael

That's illegal but nothing is stopping corporations from giving millions of dollars to Super Pacs that oppose net neutrality.

sir_eccles

Sorry I should have said campaign contributions. Apparently Ted received, sorry his campaign committee received 47k from various cable companies.

How Much Money Big Cable Gave the Politicians Who Oversee the Internet

Michael

Each company can give a small amount but the big money goes to super pacs since that is unlimited. Although the Koch brothers anonymously donates hundreds of millions of dollars to several super pacs, everyone in politics knows who donated to those super pacs and when Charles or David calls, they listen. Super pacs can't directly campaign for a candidate but they can spend as much money as they desire into what a specific candidate supports.

sir_eccles

None of which negates the fact that Ted Cruz is a ******* idiot and no different to any other politician on the Hill.

Hotscot

If he shook my hand I'd count my fingers...

sir_eccles

Bloody Canadians, can't trust em!

Michael

Or the Swiss (Michele Bachmann).

cranston

Mark Cuban and Steve Kovach on the subject.

Net Neutrality Mark Cuban - Business Insider

amideislas

I keep hearing about this "capping" by ISPs particularly in the UK, where it seems to be expected that many internet contracts will impose a "cap" of x-gigabytes per month. However, many ISP adverts now tout that they are "unlimited" as though this is something new.

For me the confusion is that in both my previous residence in Germany, or my current residence in Spain, I've never experienced any such thing.

Admittedly, here in Spain, internet speeds are pathetically slow and expensive, but that's due to lack of infrastructure, not "capping". Nobody says I can have only so-many bytes per month - except for mobile internet, of course, but that's different.

In Germany, however, reliable, high-speed internet (10Mbps or greater) has been around for a long time, is highly competitive, widely available, never capped, and is quite cheap, as little as €5 per month.

So is "capping" just a north America / UK thing? And what is the reason for it? Government intervention, or lack of it?

Hotscot

Certainly in the US it's yet another avenue to stiff the customer.

The actual data related costs are @ a few cents/pence per GB. with their overhead and profits already baked in.

Didn't know it was happening in the UK...sigh...

amideislas

The UK seems to be moving away from that model now.

But again, is the cap model in the US due to lack of government intervention, or because of it?

I would suspect that whether you consume 1GB or 100GB per month, it wouldn't really impact the cost of providing the service all that much, so all it would take is ONE ISP to offer an "unlimited" plan at lower cost than the others, and the entire "cap" model would die a quick, painless death.

What is it that prevents that?

Hotscot

"I would suspect that whether you consume 1GB or 100GB per month, it wouldn't really impact the cost of providing the service all that much"

That is very true.


Good old capitalism...and lack of competition.
They charge what the market supports.

amideislas

OK, if that's the case, then I see a huge, billion-dollar opportunity to start an ISP in the US that has a flat-rate charge, unlimited. I have to believe people would sign up in droves.

But I can only suspect there must be other barriers, or else they'd all be doing it to steal the business from each other (competition).

So, there must be something that prevents competition (typically, government regulation is the culprit) or there is a fundamental issue with infrastructure - perhaps a monopoly that owns it all, and you lease those lines on a "per byte of data" basis.

??