On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 4:52 AM, Matt Palmer <mpalmer@hezmatt.org> wrote:
On Mon, Jul 28, 2014 at 08:16:36AM +0530, Suresh Ramasubramanian wrote:
On 28-Jul-2014 8:06 am, "Matt Palmer" <mpalmer@hezmatt.org> wrote:
On Sun, Jul 27, 2014 at 05:28:08PM -0700, Richard Bennett wrote:
It's more plausible that NAACP and LULAC have correctly deduced that net neutrality is a de facto subsidy program that transfers money from the pockets of the poor and disadvantaged into the pockets of super-heavy Internet users and some of the richest and most profitable companies in America, the content resellers, on-line retailers, and advertising networks.
I've got to say, this is the first time I've heard Verizon and Comcast described as "poor and disadvantaged".
Recall what happened to entry-level broadband plans in Chile when that nation's net neutrality law was just applied: the ISPs who provided free broadband starter plans that allowed access to Facebook and Wikipedia were required to charge the poor:
[...]
Internet Freedom? Not so much.
I totally agree. You can't have Internet Freedom when some of the richest and most profitable companies in America, the content resellers, on-line retailers, and advertising networks, are paying to have eyeballs locked into their services. Far better that users be given an opportunity to browse the Internet free of restriction, by providing reasonable cost services through robust and healthy competition.
Or is that perhaps not what you meant?
I think he meant the actual poor people that broadband subsidies and free walled garden internet to access only fb and Wikipedia are supposed to benefit, but I could be wrong
I've got a whopping great big privilege that's possibly obscuring my view, but I fail to see how only providing access to Facebook and Wikipedia is (a) actual *Internet* access, or (b) actually beneficial, in the long run, to anyone other than Facebook and Wikipedia. I suppose it could benefit the (no doubt incumbent) telco which is providing the service, since it makes it much more difficult for competition to flourish. I can't see any lasting benefit to the end user (or should I say "product"?).
FYI it's Bharti-Airtel, not an incumbent, but a multinational GSM operator.
- Matt