Internet providers say the FCC should not investigate broadband prices

kinther@lemmy.world to Technology@lemmy.world – 814 points –
Internet providers say the FCC should not investigate broadband prices
arstechnica.com
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"we're not doing illegal, and no you can't check."

-People doing illegal things

you're OK with having all your messages read by the government?

We already know they do that. If they can't directly for any legal reason that they don't want to admit violating, they'll just have one of our allies do it for them via their foreign intelligence sevices. Snowden gave us the proof of that a decade ago.

Neither private companies nor the government should be collecting data from/about citizens without probable cause and due process.

That could all be codified into the regulations that classify internet as a public infrastructure service.

You do realize they have a law that requires the phone companies to run a phone line no matter where you build in the USA right? Requiring the ISPs to uphold stipulations like this is a good thing.

Also, NSA..

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How to tell you are running a cartel, step #1:

The cartel says the CIA shouldnt investigate cocaine prices.

Cocaine prices have made little to no change even though recessions, my friend tells me.

Recently saw a report on cocaine, apparently the prices haven't changed since the 1990s... just the purity has gone down and it now comes laced with fentanyl.

Internet providers say the FCC should not investigate broadband prices

And that's exactly why broadband prices should be investigated.

Make internet access a utility and be done with it.

Seriously. Why is this taking so long!? It’s painfully obvious!

Because the ISPs don't want to have to do what we made them do for phone lines. Even though the trillion dollars we have given them over the last 30 years should have come with that stipulation...but they took that money and bought our politicians with it.

I $$$$ honestly $$$$ have $$$$ not $$$$ a $$$$ single $$$$ idea $$$$ why $$$$ either.

It was until Ajit Pai removed the classification 😤

In my native country gigabit fiber internet is less than $9/mo. Broadband prices in the US are absolutely ridiculous.

Good God I pay 90 a month for 1 gig fiber. What county are you in?

I pay $500, lol

W. H. A. T.

Sorry, it's so hard to believe, you have to explain how.

I live very rural and my only other option was 500kbps on a good day internet which doesn't work for my software engineering job. So I ended up having to make tons of calls and beg and plead and I finally found a fiber provider who would trench a line directly to my house for me.

Problem is...I'm paying for it for 10 years now.

But it was worth it.

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I pay 99.95 a month for 50 megs gotta love the local phone cmpny

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50€ for 1000/1000 here. My employer covers it.

46€ for the same here.

30€ if I can do with 1000/100 instead, which most people could.

I pay $110 for 2000/2000 fiber. In the US.

I pay $110 for 300mbs down 10 mbs up, in New York City. I have routine fantasies about what the board of my ISP deserves.

49€ here, but yeah about 1/10 of the price of some US states is insane.

I pay Comcast $130 for 1000/35

Just Internet, no bundles.

you can get the same internet speed for like 10$ in Ukraine. of 4$ for symmetrical 100mbps fiber connection

Not to defend those shitbags, but population density plays a large part in infrastructure cost. source

Granted, they've alco received enormous subsidies without intending to fulfill their obligations, but still, it's a significant factor. This country is quite large. I can drive 4h in nearly any direction and still be in state lines. Most of that is farm land.

This is one of the reasons why this should be nationalized because rural areas are still either unserved or underserved by broadband because the cost/benefit analysis doesn't favor the provider enough.

That said, prices are higher than they should be even taking density into account (strictly my opinion). Gigabit fiber should actually be about $15/mo for all regions, (my SWAG*) but the infrastructure just is not there yet. The biggest challenge being the "last mile".

*Sophisticated wild-ass guess

Don’t let them tell you it’s the lack of density that is the problem. I live in a major US city with high density, and there is only one provider that offers actual broadband at my address (~$100/mo for 500Mb/s service). The “competition” wants me to pay $50/mo for 20 Megabit DSL.

No, it truly is part of the problem and there is no excuse for you to be billed that much. Two things can be true!

I have the option of 200 megabits for $19. It all depends on what infrastructure is already there and how much it costs for them to get the hookup to you whatever it is. I think the real problem is that we're living under their rules which are based on how much money they can make rather than providing equal access for everyone.

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My three year old often says "Dad don't look!" When he does that, I know for a fact he's doing something he shouldn't be doing.

Good thing broadband providers have such a stellar track record of nothing but honorable and consumer-benefiting behavior. I see no reason that we can't just trust that they have our best interests at heart.

If any business tells the government that it should not look to closely into it's practices, then you know that there is something that needs to be brought to the light and corrected.

It’s like a teenager telling their mom she doesn’t need to check the browser history

Criminal doesn't want to be investigated.

I agree, the FCC shouldn't waste time investigating broadband prices. Just nationalize them. And the rest of infrastructure.

Serial killers say the FBI should stay out of their dark mysterious shed

What about bathrooms, are those still safe?

If he's a white cisgender conservative male? Probably not.

Shh, you're gonna upset the white cisgender conservative males...

"We promise not to eat any more faces," said a spokeswolf for the Wolves Eating Faces Corporation.

According to Marx, the capitalist will always dismiss all other concerns than their own gain, and will lie and murder for their ill-gotten gains.

The 21st century teems of examples

This week's Behind the Bastards (about the capture of Christianity by capitalism) tells about the _exact same thing in the 1930s and 1940s (parallel with the rise of fascism). The same give us all the money push was happening tgen as now, only now the campaign is bigger.

Fuck these guys. They're no better than nineteenth century railroad tycoons

Yeah, same podcast made the point in their episodes about the Hawk's Nest Tunnel Project, and how it was recent history even though it sounds like some medieval horror story. These fucks haven't changed, and the same company that profited off that brutality is still around and still making money hand over fist and never reckoned with their crimes.

I say that if corporations have the benefits of personhood, they should also have the responsibilities and liabilities of a personhood. Kill 5 people due to clear negligence? Company comes under government control (prison) for the same amount of time as a regular person would for the same crime.

Kill hundreds? The company is dissolved and the responsible people are jailed.

Oh, and companies are represented by a random public defender from that jurisdiction.

That'd get some things fixed real quick.

That would certainly be more just, but to do that you'd need to reverse what is effectively their complete regulatory capture.

To do that you'd need to create a situation where money wasn't liquid power.

To do that you'd need to dismantle capitalism.

So at that point corporations aren't a thing anymore.

I say we do that. Like if we're dreaming, let's dream big.

They’re no better than nineteenth century railroad tycoons

It literally the same people or their descendants in most cases.

Don’t try that Jedi shit on me it doesn’t work.

Oh god the wipe transitions. I remember when the original trilogy was being remade into... I think the Gold version? I watched bts stuff and George was explaining how they'd added wipes to the scene transitions. Like, cool new CGI and all, but maybe adding wipes over the entire thing is kind of taking the piss.

I’ve been a big fan of my internet provider for not playing these games, until this year. Them: “ you owe more every month”, me: “you’re raising prices?”, them: “no, prices remain the same and you can continue on your existing plan, but you need to pay more”

Exactly the reason I have 2 coax cables running into my house. I just switch each time they pull this shit. I own all my own hardware so it's no big deal.

"Trust me, the cheese is fine"- Mouse assigned to guard the cheese

🤣🤣😅😅😅🤣🤣🤣 Not biased at all. I have a $20 price lock on spectrum ATM, but as soon as that ends I'm going to say goodbye and get 5G because I'm not paying $50 for fixed internet they have a monopoly in the area I've moved to.

This is the best summary I could come up with:


In 2021, Congress required the Federal Communications Commission to issue rules "preventing digital discrimination of access based on income level, race, ethnicity, color, religion, or national origin" within two years.

FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel last month released her draft plan to comply with the congressional mandate and scheduled a November 15 commission vote on adopting final rules.

Carr described Rosenworcel's proposal as "President Biden's plan to give the administrative state effective control of all Internet services and infrastructure in the US."

In a meeting with Rosenworcel's staff, cable company executives "stated that the Draft Order would impose overbroad liability standards that impede further broadband investment and are legally vulnerable by adopting a disparate impact rather than a disparate treatment liability approach," according to an ex parte filing submitted yesterday by cable lobby group NCTA-The Internet & Television Association.

The cable companies said the FCC "should define digital discrimination as disparate treatment and should limit the standard to policies and practices involving the deployment of broadband network facilities.

"Commission evaluation of price is unnecessary in the competitive wireless marketplace and may deter offering discounts and enticements to switch providers that consumers enjoy today."


The original article contains 688 words, the summary contains 192 words. Saved 72%. I'm a bot and I'm open source!

🪓🪓🪓Just one small problem, Ben! Switch providers to who? Fucking Aquaman?!?