On Wed, 24 Jan 2018 17:09:39 -0700 Michael Butash wrote: > Interesting part to the whole net neutrality thing, companies are > already working around the system regardless. [snip] > Your worst-case scenario is Comcast or other ill-intentioned MSP buys > Cox, and imposes their established limitations. Your worst-case scenario is that your new business, which provides an innovative new internet service, competes with the inferior offerings of comcast, spectrum, etc. So they throttle your service to the point of unusability. You're a startup, so you can't afford the zillions to bribe them into providing decent bandwidth. Second worst case is that your provider, instead of building out their infrastructure like they'd certainly do if they had more than 1 or 2 competitors in each neighborhood, they'll throttle everyone and then sell less throttled Internet for twice the price. So you can choose between a steep price increase, or stuttering and stumbling along with something resembling 1998 dialup. The free marketeers criticizing net neutrality forget that there's no bandwidth marketplace. Most houses have a choice of 1 or 2 wired internet providers, and I think 2 satellite providers with the long latencies and upload through a telephone line. Many households are lucky to have one alternative that can provide bandwidth, quickness and reliability necessary for 2018. This is not a marketplace, it's an oligopoly, and we all know what happens in oligopoly situations without government imposed rules. It's not a free market if it's not a market at all. SteveT --------------------------------------------------- PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.phxlinux.org To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: http://lists.phxlinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss