title: FCC Comments link: https://onemoretech.wordpress.com/2014/06/03/fcc-comments/ author: phil2nc description: post_id: 7804 created: 2014/06/03 10:50:54 created_gmt: 2014/06/03 14:50:54 comment_status: closed post_name: fcc-comments status: publish post_type: post

FCC Comments

I filed my comments regarding Net Neutrality and the Comcast-Time Warner merger with the American FCC today. More below. On Net Neutrality:

All carriers of Internet packets should be reclassified as common carriers and rules established requiring all Internet traffic conveyed by those carriers all be treated equally. Authorizing the establishment of service tiers that would give some companies preference over others in the delivery of their traffic would be a fundamentally flawed policy that would benefit no one but the companies who own those carriers. It is not in the public interest or in the interest of private concerns whose ability to compete in a very competitive global market depends upon their being able to operate on a level playing field. Such a policy would damage not only those companies but also our nation in reducing our ability to compete in a world market where regulators in other nations have stepped up and resisted carrier demands. The infrastructure of the Internet may have been substantially built by private companies, but it has been protected by governments at extraordinary cost to the taxpaying public. Those governments, including ours, must regulate that infrastructure in the public interest and not the interests of the small group of companies who demand authorization to set up service tiers.

In the matter of Comcast and Time-Warner's merger:

Allowing this merger would be an extraordinarily foolish and short-sighted. It would be a disaster for consumers and, ultimately, the nation. These companies individually already have effective monopoly control of the markets in their respective geographic territories (carried over from the original CATV initiative) that give them enormous economic and political leverage over consumers and regulators. They have used this monopoly power to overcharge for services, limit access and avoid future proofing technological advances, all to the detriment of public access to the Internet and the competitive position of our nation's technology infrastructure. Together their already undue influence would be even more complete. Even if reclassified as a common carrier the combined company would simply have too much control over the market, control they would continue to exercise in their own, rather than the public, interest. This merger should not be approved AND all companies who deliver Internet packets to consumers (by whatever technological means, be it overland wire or wireless) should be reclassified as common carriers. Then the hard work of making the US once again competitive can begin

Thanks to John Oliver for making this inspiration pitch that caused me to go over and post those comments: [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbOEoRrHyU&w;=560&h;=315]

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