FCC Chair: Net Neutrality Is “Right Choice” Because Big ISPs Want “Unfettered Power”

FCC Chair: Net Neutrality Is “Right Choice” Because Big ISPs Want “Unfettered Power” – Consumerist: "“The true choice is between protecting the gatekeepers, or protecting consumers and insurgents,” Wheeler continued. “To understand the problem, it is necessary to understand the power of the biggest ISPs. Consider this simple fact: About three-fourths of American households have zero or one choice for highspeed, wired broadband to their homes. No choice or one choice,” he said, “does not make an attractive marketplace from a consumer’s perspective.”

After this understatement, Wheeler went on to remind the audience that the large incumbent ISPs, monopolies that they are, have both the ability and the incentive — the tools to act and the financially rewarding outcomes — to disadvantage both companies and consumers when it comes to transmitting content. And that, of course, is where a strong net neutrality rule comes in. If screwing with content and connections is made illegal, they probably won’t do it.

As for those lawsuits against the new rule (and the others likely to follow), Wheeler was confident." 'via Blog this'

Indian regulator consults on anti-net neutrality: "over the top" services

See document here - extremely biased in favour of mobiles of course, as India's fixed line penetration is pathetic: "Question 5: Do you agree that imbalances exist in the regulatory environment in the operation of OTT players? If so, what should be the framework to address these issues? How can the prevailing laws and regulations be applied to OTT players (who operate in the virtual world) and compliance enforced?
"Stakeholders are requested to send their comments preferably in electronic form by 24th April, 2015 and counter comments by 8th May 2015 on email id advqos@trai.gov.in. For any clarification/information, Shri A. Robert. J. Ravi, Advisor (TD & QoS)".

3UK Finalises Deal to Buy O2 from Telefonica for £10.25bn if antitrust/regulators agree

UPDATE Three UK Finalises Deal to Buy O2 from Telefonica for £10.25bn - ISPreview UK:

"On top of that there’s the increasingly complex web of Network Sharing and Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) deals to consider, with both TalkTalk and Sky Broadband having signed MVNO deals with O2.

 The MVNO deals aren’t likely to be much of a concern due to O2/Three UK’s (aka – Throat, as we like to call them) lack of a fixed line business, although O2 also has a network sharing agreement with Vodafone and Three UK has one with EE. Somewhere along the lines a difficult decision will have to be taken because that situation may soon start to look untenable.

 Meanwhile Three UK’s customers will be hoping that the operators low-cost and data centric approach isn’t sacrificed, while O2 users will be wary of any potential quality loss to the now more budget conscious owner. Both operators also have fairly recognisable brands, but Hutchison Whampoa may well wish to move them under a single umbrella.

 In any case we’ll have to wait and see how everything turns out, although it could a year before everything is completed (the same as with BT’s purchase of EE) and that’s assuming the competition authorities don’t raise concerns."



'via Blog this'

First Round of Lawsuits Filed In Net Neutrality Case. Now What?

Wetmachine » Tales of the Sausage Factory » First Round of Lawsuits Filed In Net Neutrality Case. Now What?: "Both the D.C. Circuit and the 5th Circuit are generally considered conservative circuits hostile to regulation generally and the FCC specifically. We will not pause to ponder, here, what that says about our supposedly neutral court system at the moment. However, the FCC asserted that it was following the “invitation” laid out by the D.C. Circuit to reconsider its classification decision, and that is not an unreasonable reading of the Verizon decision. So it is plausible that, as between the D.C. Circuit and the 5th Cir., the FCC may prefer to be in the 5th Cir." 'via Blog this'

Stallman joins the Internet, talks net neutrality, patents and more

Stallman joins the Internet, talks net neutrality, patents and more | Network World:

"However, he was critical of the government for not going far enough to protect the ability of users to share.

“It falls short of true network neutrality in that it fails to tell the ISPs that they can’t examine the data to check for unauthorized copying. It fails to tell the ISPs that they can’t punish their customers based on what their customers are transmitting.”" 'via Blog this'

TeleFrieden: New Video Streaming Options and Network Neutrality

TeleFrieden: New Video Streaming Options and Network Neutrality: "The 2015 Open Internet Order generally prohibits paid prioritization and establishes a “no-unreasonable interference/disadvantage” standard for ISP treatment of upstream traffic, like that flowing from content sources.  This probably means that the FCC will want to make sure that specialized routing arrangements are technically necessary on quality of service grounds and not simply a construct to favor traffic of affiliates, or surcharge payers.  Sponsored data arrangements also fit into this category.

           

Does an ISP simply partition generic bandwidth and call it a specialized network, or does the ISPs really and truly do something by way of dedicated, management?  Bear in mind that some way, somehow the FCC has avoided having to examine the functions and services performed by proxy server/CDN companies like Akamai.  Does an ISP simply have to show it operates like Akamai, but extends the value added, specialized features for the link downstream to end users?" 'via Blog this'

Romania has fastest broadband in Europe

11 maps and charts to challenge your perceptions of Europe: "1. The fastest download speeds are to be found in Romania."

'via Blog this'