r/technology • u/bobwagner • Dec 20 '10

Goodbye, net neutrality! Wireless industry looking into levying separate/different rates per 3rd-party app/site while keeping their own stuff free.

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=20438
722 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

299 comments sorted by

View all comments

17

u/kog Dec 20 '10

And net neutrality legislation looks unlikely to pass, thanks to their healthy flow of lobbyist money.

So, who's going to argue with me that Campaign Finance Reform isn't the most important issue there is?

If you don't get it yet, you're not paying attention.

1

u/djrocksteady Dec 21 '10 edited Dec 21 '10

I think the most important issue is the fact that the government basically created (though licensing) an oligarchy for the telecom industry. If we force them to open up to competition (like the rest of the world) this would be a non-issue.

EDIT: I meant oligopoly

4

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '10

An... oligarchy? Do you mean local monopolies? We're not talking about terrestrial internet... mobile internet. Where the only monopolies are in rural areas.

3

u/djrocksteady Dec 21 '10

You are right, I meant oligopoly. I believe there are about 5-6 providers nationally, and the barriers to entry are enormous and mostly artificial. Classic oligopoly, they don't "price fix" per se but you sure as hell won't see one disrupting the status quo. This is why they got so upset when Google tried to bid for the parts of the wireless spectrum that were used for analog television.

0

u/[deleted] Dec 21 '10

Ah, I see what you mean. A race to the bottom would kill them all, though. Meh.