• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Net Neutrality is killing growth and innovation.

Status
Not open for further replies.
It's not net neutrality but rather the loosening of municipal broadband restrictions. Once a city sets that up it's really hard for Comcast to get back in. Of course this is just posturing anyway, it'll probably cost $200+ a month and be sold to businesses because they know residential subscribers won't adopt it in large quantities. My town is building municipal broadband and it'll cost about $50 a month for 1Gbps service, whereas Century Link coincidentally just started their own rollout but it costs $160 a month.
I pay 67 a month for my 12 down. I'm getting so fucked.
 
The article mentions they have to deploy the fiber, so while the means to have the speeds has been there, Comcast didn't have a need until someone else came in and stated they were going to do it.

Didn't the government give these cable companies massive amounts of money several years ago to not only upgrade their lines but to also spread the reach to rural areas? I still don't understand how they got away with basically just pocketing that money.
 
Well would you look at that.

I wish Google Fiber would come to my city. I'm still stuck using a crappy 6mbps DSL service from at&t, and I'm fairly sure the upload speed is less than 1mbps. But what's worse is the 150GB data cap.
 
While this is great news, this really has nothing to do with net neutrality. A city could have 14 ISPs giving 10Gbps DL speeds, but still perform deep packet inspection / throttle services.
 
I pay 67 a month for my 12 down. I'm getting so fucked.

That's what I pay Comcast now too but they recently boosted it to 20Mbps. What unfortunately a lot of people don't understand is it's not the top speed that matters. You can stream high-def video on what's available now, but the issue is like with phone plans the prices are way too damn high because of lack of competition.
 
Didn't the government give these cable companies massive amounts of money several years ago to not only upgrade their lines but to also spread the reach to rural areas? I still don't understand how they got away with basically just pocketing that money.

They did. Telcos also got huge amounts as well. But, in the end, government and people let them get away with it.
 
? Bits.

Thing is, while not optimal, when it's running fine, it's good enough. It's the drops I'll get frequently that affect gaming or downloads that chap my ass.
Yeah, then you are getting boned. I was paying $60 a month for 3.4mbits when I lived in the countryside. $100 now for 100mbits or the nest highest tier, $60 for 35mbits.
 
You mean an open playing field actually fosters competition between providers, compelling them to offer better services with better value to prospective customers in order to earn their money?

Who'd have thought?!

Legit thanks, Obama :)
 
Yeah, then you are getting boned. I was paying $60 a month for 3.4mbits when I lived in the countryside. $100 now for 100mbits or the nest highest tier, $60 for 35mbits.
I couldn't justify 100 a month to my wife, so I'd be going for that 35. Not ideal, but it would be an improvement. What sucks is Charter is available ten minutes down the road. My buddy gets 60 down for 30 a month and he hardly even uses it. Mostly a cell phone guy. It's killing me.
 
So no data cap on new service. Cost will easily be over $100 a month. Currently on Blast! @ 79/mo.

I don't have any hope of them removing our lucky "trial city" 300GB cap for other plans in Atlanta.
 
I wonder if this is part of their bid to get the Time Warner deal done? "Look we are playing nice"

I wonder if it will be shady like AT&Ts service.
 
hahahahaha

Get wrecked GOP

but but but OBAMA'S INTERNET.

2Gbit of communism.

36530-ryan-stiles-love-it-gif-dg7r.gif


This is amazing. I am currently rubbing this into my
(heavily conservative)
family that said regulating ISPs was bad for the people.

EDIT: their reaction is "slight disbelief"... At least it's something.
 
Confused what this announcement has to do with net neutrality and politics.

Just Comcast PR to say they're still relevant.

What they're offering is not for every Comcast customer in the area.
 
Didn't the government give these cable companies massive amounts of money several years ago to not only upgrade their lines but to also spread the reach to rural areas? I still don't understand how they got away with basically just pocketing that money.

Cable companies benefited from telephone companies who received subsidies and did not upgrade their infrastructures to provide competition.

Cable companies subsequently abused their positions since now they are providing the fastest home internet access for most Americans and hence people in here are more likely unhappy for how much they're paying for Internet. They actually upgraded their infrastructure through DOCSIS upgrades. The latest (3.1) will be a difficult transition but will allow more spectrum in the pipeline.

What I would like to see is a competition in pricing, but I don't think that will happen until muni broadband is available.

Every time I walk into these threads, people scream, "Google Fiber!", and President Obama would be shaking his head.

You guys should be pressuring your local government to bring a muni broadband option.
 
36530-ryan-stiles-love-it-gif-dg7r.gif


This is amazing. I am currently rubbing this into my
(heavily conservative)
family that said regulating ISPs was bad for the people.

EDIT: their reaction is "slight disbelief"... At least it's something.
Nothing is ever good enough. The Kenyan King must have an ace up his sleeve to quell this positivity.
 
I don't care how fast they offer me here in Southeast Atlanta, I'm still switching to Google Fiber the chance I get.
Fuck Comcast.

I envy you. We won't be getting it in Forsyth County. So it's either AT&T DSL (no U-verse up here either) or Comcast. AT&T DSL is just too damned slow.

In other words, QQ.
 
It definitely is a trap. They're gonna lure you in with reasonable rates and then when you want to swap to Google Fiber they just never terminate the service. Or billing.
 
But ... if we didnt allow them to limit traffic to certain sites, then how do they have the bandwidths for this. They should be running out of internets!
 
I'm certain there will be a cap eventually and I definately don't expect them to deliver a competitive price. But I'm happy there is competition on the horizon thats pressuring them to improve their service.
 
Damn, some of you are getting fucked by comcast. $60/Mo for 20mbps down is absurd. I'm paying $116/Mo for X1+250 Channels+HBO/Starz + 105Mbps + Digital Voice with a price lock for 2 years.
 
Damn, some of you are getting fucked by comcast. I'm paying $116/Mo for X1+250 Channels+HBO/Starz - 105Mbps - Digital Voice with a price lock for 2 years.

Yea, I don't get it, if you spend enough time here complaining you can spend 10 minutes on the phone.

I get 100mb blast service, digital premiere plus HBO for $85/mo with no contract or promo
 
So what does this have to do with NN?

Does the 300GB data cap still apply I wonder because I am in Atlanta that is how it is with 50mbps before they charge you $10 per 50gb more.
 
105mbps from Comcast is $114.99 after the 6 month "lure you in" price

So can I expect to pay $1870.08 for this lovely service.

Damn, some of you are getting fucked by comcast. $60/Mo for 20mbps down is absurd. I'm paying $116/Mo for X1+250 Channels+HBO/Starz + 105Mbps + Digital Voice with a price lock for 2 years.

That service/deal in my area is $159.99 for the first 12 months of a 2 year deal...without the other 3 HD boxes I need.
 
36530-ryan-stiles-love-it-gif-dg7r.gif


This is amazing. I am currently rubbing this into my
(heavily conservative)
family that said regulating ISPs was bad for the people.

EDIT: their reaction is "slight disbelief"... At least it's something.

It's sad that the talking point ever became 'regulation' in the first place.


All the regulation does is actually keep the pre-existing status quo ... which I've never heard Republicans state was a problem beforehand. All the 'regulation' does is prevent dickery from ISPs to actually change things in an anti-consumer or anti-business way. It's simply an ideological / platform knee-jerk, without actually considering the intent or results.

If the status quo was so bad, how come we never heard anyone complain about it on the right until now?
 
So what does this have to do with NN?

Does the 300GB data cap still apply I wonder because I am in Atlanta that is how it is with 50mbps before they charge you $10 per 50gb more.

The GOP claimed that NN would mean the end of expansion and improvements in networks of today and tomorrow.
 
Guys, this is Comcast.

They'll get us all streaming in 4k and then find a way to sneak in crazy data cap overages.
We heard your outcry of 250GB being too small for the new generation of cord cutters and based on research we have found that 95% of this generation uses less then 300GB a month so we are now implementing a unprecedented 350GB cap (100GB more then our competitors like ATT) and instead of penalizing people who go over a few GB and charging them $10 and adding 50GB we are making our internet more flexible and are introducing a new overcharge plan of $1 per GB.

Xfinity, people matter.
 
So what does this have to do with NN?
The right claimed these regulations would at the minimum stifle growth and investment, and at the worst actually destroy businesses and jobs. It's like clockwork. They beat the same drum every ... fucking ... time there is any sort of regulation being introduced.

For example, back in 70's they claimed American car manufacturers would be destroyed when the EPA forced emissions reductions and efficiency improvements. And like clockwork, they were wrong.


What's so ridiculous here is that isn't even an apples to apples comparison. Those environmental regulations actually forced some R&D and manufacturing changes. This literally changes nothing from what ISP's have been doing since offering broadband. All it does is prevent them from enacting new shady methods of making more money than they already do (which is quite a fucking lot).

But apparently in Republicans minds, not having an avenue to increase margins without actually improving service (and doing it in a really shady way) is equivalent to corporate death.
 
Competition is a great thing. Now let's do the same for phone service carriers. Caps are so stupid. If you have capped internet service you should have capped tv, food and phone service. Only 30 calls a month and no more.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom