new thread: QoS, latency, bandwidth and the FCC/net neutrality debate

[Matthew Crews]

I think some of y'all forget that the net neutrality debate isn't really about QoS, latency, or bandwidth. It is about ISPs intentionally throttling or blocking services and websites that compete directly with other services that an ISP might offer, or even for arbitrary reasons or no reasons at all.

Since the vast majority of us are in the Phoenix area, we are likely serviced by either CenturyLink or Cox for our physical internet, and by Verizon, AT&T, Sprint or T-Mobile for cellular internet. Without net neutrality, Cox will be allowed to throttle services like Hulu, Netflix and Youtube to horribly slow speeds if they want, while allowing their own competing television services and streaming services to go through at high speed; they can "restore" normal speeds for an extra fee, or not. Verizon could block or throttle access to Google Drive, Apple iDrive, or One Drive, while freely allowing access to their competing "Verizon Cloud" and "Verizon Messages". The same with AT&T and blocking Skype, Google Hangouts, Apple Facetime, or WhatsApp. Unless of course you pay extra, or not if the ISP doesn't want you to access a service at all.

In countries that do not have net neutrality, this isn't hypothetical. This actually happens. See: https://twitter.com/rokhanna/status/923701871092441088?lang=en

Lets not forget that some ISPs were actively sabotaging certain network services such as Bittorrent. See: https://arstechnica.com/uncategorized/2007/10/evidence-mounts-that-comcast-is-targeting-bittorrent-traffic/

At some point, this does cross the line into corporate censorship if an ISP is allowed to arbitrarily block access to websites. Would you want to pay $5/mo for the "right" to access facebook.com, google.com, or ubuntu.com, or play games via Xbox Live or Steam? I sure as hell don't. With net neutrality gone, nothing is stopping this theoretical scenario from actually happening.

If the goal is to free up network congestion from an ISP perspective, this is easily accomplished by imposing download limits (which Cox most certainly does, as well as all cellular providers, even under "unlimited" plans), and other content-neutral means (such as throttling during a peak time of day). Or ISPs can continue to raise prices.

-Matt