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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

I don't know about you but sites are loading more slowly for me already
Posted by Jill | 4:58 AM
Right now, as I sit here, I have Americablog in one tab sitting and waiting for "widget.linkwithin.com". Vagabond Scholar is in another one, waiting for "i4.ytimg.com". The article in the New York Times on how the so-called Democratic majority at the FCC sold us out on net neutrality yesterday won't run at all. It's waiting for "graphics8.nytimes.com". Ah, there it goes...after about a full minute. Wired.com's home page is waiting for "syndication.jobthread.com." CNBC.com took forever to load, waiting for a graphics server.

That didn't take long.

Because it's going to be a different internet from now on, one that belongs to the corporations instead of the people:
Internet providers - WINNERS
* Cable companies like Comcast Corp, Time Warner Cable, Cablevision Systems Corp and big landline providers like AT&T Inc and Verizon Communications Inc

* The rules will not stand in the way of usage-based pricing, allowing cable and other fixed line companies that also serve as high-speed Internet providers to increase rates for subscribers that do bandwidth-heavy tasks.

* Cable subscribers considering dropping their TV service to watch television and movies online may think twice if new pricing schemes push up the cost of streaming content.

* Cable companies are also better off than when the FCC was considering reclassifying broadband under the stricter regulatory regime of existing phone rules.

Wireless carriers - WINNERS
* Verizon Wireless (joint venture of Verizon Communications and Vodafone Group Plc, AT&T, Sprint Nextel Corp, T-Mobile (U.S. unit of Deutsche Telekom AG

* Wireless carriers would be granted added flexibility under the rules, which acknowledge the tighter bandwidth-constraints mobile broadband faces.

* They would be subject to a looser version of the no-blocking policy, which only bans the blocking of websites and competing voice and video services.

* Mobile broadband could still discriminate against bandwidth-heavy content.

* CTIA, the trade association for the wireless industry, continues to say the rules are unnecessary, but commended the FCC for recognizing the need to regulate mobile broadband differently from landline services.

Content providers - LOSERS
* Google Inc, Microsoft Corp, Amazon.com, Facebook, Netflix Inc

* Video content providers may lose some of the edge they were building over cable companies if downloading content becomes more expensive under usage-based pricing.

* Mobile broadband is not subject to as many network management restrictions as wireline services, creating fewer protections for mobile applications.

Internet users/consumers - MIXED
* Public interest groups Free Press, Public Knowledge and the Media Access Project all complained that the rules would give Internet providers too much power over Internet users.

* This is particularly worrisome, they said, for the poor and minorities who use their cell phones as a primary tool to access the Internet.

* But some industry analysts say the rules will prevent network congestion and allow companies to make sufficient money to invest in upgrading their networks.

* FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said consumers would not see significant changes as the rules are intended to preserve the current openness of the Internet.


So unless the giant corporations who provide content can find a way to say "screw you" to the giant corporations that provide the bandwidth and offer their own distribution networks (which in turn will no doubt discriminate against competetitors in their industry), the internet, which was developed by DARPA for the Department of Defense using OUR taxpayer money, will be solely the province of Verizon, AT&T, Comcast, Cablevision, and the like. If Amazon, Google, Facebook and the like build their own networks, they will favor their own content. From now on, no matter what happens, what we see on the internet is a function of how it contributes to the profits of the corporations who carry the ones and zeroes across the wires and through the air. And government of the corporations, by the corporations, and for the corporations, continues.

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