Is Obama right? Is Broadband Internet A Public Utility?
Last edited Tue Nov 11, 2014, 11:43 AM - Edit history (5)
Is broadband internet access vital to national interests and security? Is it's use so common and widespread and integrated into society that it's loss would cause catastrophic failure of economic or social systems?
Then it is a utility and it must be regulated as a public utility, with far greater control by the FCC than it currently has.
It is about Net Fairness, not just Net Neutrality, regulation as a public utility would also reign in the turf war between the content providers and the owners of the pipelines.
If Broadband Internet is a public utility then the consumer wins and the cable companies lose, the content provides lose, everyone else wins, everyone else has equal access to the public utility at the same price, more or less, and the same ready and easy access to a vital public resource based solely on price. Obama opposes the corporations controlling the volume and the price.....and the privacy....who controls all that, the corporations or the public?
This issue is going to separate the third way folks from the liberals, it may have been his intent, as well as to put pressure on the cable companies to stop revisiting current proposed regulations.
With Broadband Internet being a utility....cell phones, wireless communications....instead of corporations completely in control, it would be in the public domain - theoretically controlled by and for The People, not just the corporations...so of course they are stunned and howl and send in their hounds to shout at the black man that said the truth. Why is there even a debate as to why liberals must support Obama 100% on this?
The Internet is just a bunch of tubes, after all, sewage lines is the best comparison, but also just like your electricity, water, gas, oil, cable, and it is in such general use and importance it should not be left to the absolute control of private corporations.
"For almost a century, our law has recognized that companies who connect you to the world have special obligations not to exploit the monopoly they enjoy over access in and out of your home or business," Obama said in his statement. "That is why a phone call from a customer of one phone company can reliably reach a customer of a different one, and why you will not be penalized solely for calling someone who is using another provider. It is common sense that the same philosophy should guide any service that is based on the transmission of information -- whether a phone call, or a packet of data."
President Barrack Obama, November 10, 2014
@APEC Summit, Bejing
http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/3.IGATCzGAo8OBewWCrlCw--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTM3NztweG9mZj01MDtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz02NzA-/
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http://www.thewire.com/technology/2014/05/is-broadband-internet-a-public-utility/362093/
"With the FCC nearing a vote about proposed net neutrality regulations, Chairman Tom Wheeler issued a series of revisions to the proposal this week. The most interesting revision that Wheeler offers is an examination of whether or not net neutrality is the jurisdiction of the FCC at all. He invited public comments as to whether broadband Internet service could actually be a public utility, similar to gas, water, sewage treatment, and electricity. If broadband Internet is reclassified as a public utility, Internet service providers would be subject to stricter and more developed regulation, far beyond the scope of what the FCC can manage.
While a reclassification has not yet been made, the proposal does open the door to a discussion about the future of the Internet and what role it plays in our lives."
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"But aren't all public utilities really monopolies?
The greatest issue with deeming broadband Internet a public utility is the inherent monopolization in this space; both natural monopoly and regulated private monopoly. While some may distinguish between the two, they are truly the same in many ways — and there lies the problem of deeming Internet a public utility.
As Forbes' Tim Worstall artfully describes: "In the U.S. a utility is usually made up of two things, power generation and power distribution. It is true that, to a very large extent...power distribution is a natural monopoly." A natural monopoly can be created when one service is far above and beyond the others in efficiency and size, or far more reasonable in cost. However, regulated private monopolies become natural monopolies because of the power distribution channels. There is not enough to be gained, both monetarily and in the sense of power, to have two competing distribution channels. In the end, the companies congeal, forming monopolies."
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NOVEMBER 10, 2014 | BY CORYNNE MCSHERRY
The White House Gets It Right On Net Neutrality. Will the FCC?
Over the past year, millions of Internet users have spoken out in defense of the open Internet. Today, we know the White House heard us.
In a statement issued this morning, President Barack Obama has called on the Federal Communications Commission to develop new “net neutrality” rules and, equally importantly, establish the legal authority it needs to support those rules by reclassifying broadband service as a “telecommunications service.”
This is very welcomed news. Back in May, the Federal Communications Commission proposed flawed “net neutrality” rules that would effectively bless the creation of Internet “slow lanes.” After months of netroots protests, we learned the FCC began to settle on a “hybrid” proposal that, we fear, is legally unsustainable.
Here's why: if the FCC is going to craft and enforce clear and limited neutrality rules, it must first do one important thing. The FCC must reverse its 2002 decision to treat broadband as an “information service” rather than a “telecommunications service.” This is what’s known as Title II reclassification. According to the highest court to review the question, the rules that actually do what many of us want — such as forbidding discrimination against certain applications — require the FCC to treat access providers like “common carriers, ” treatment that can only be applied to telecommunications services. Having chosen to define broadband as an “information service,” the FCC can impose regulations that “promote competition” (good) but it cannot stop providers from giving their friends special access to Internet users (bad).
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The massive debt that exists on these companies' books. They owe wall street big time.
Make sure the debt issues are resolved and there is a massive stop put in place on innovation, r & d, employee salaries and benefits - before we proceed. I would also hope there would be a buyout structure in place.
I.E. a Buy Out - You are going to have to retire because there is no need for you anymore. Marketing, sales, product management (no longer products as utilities don't make those distinctions), product development, interoperability. . . how will the telecom unions survive?
I need to make sure the union workers are going to be secure before I get on this bandwagon. I think a company like Comcast which uses contract employees for installation will be aok - they will continue on with the $10 an hour.
But I don't know about the ones with large numbers of union employees who fought hard for their benefits all of these years. I don't think Fed Gov can afford them.
As well - it's pretty standard in business to receive 2 weeks salary for each year of service. Example - my first boss at major wireless is 47. This is the only place she's worked - interning for NYNEX and airtouch. I would want Jane to get what she is earned because there is ZERO need for innovation in a public utility environment. John P - 70 years old - wife's pension is at risk from Chris Christie's behavior. 40 years. Make sure the Telcos are REQUIRED to meet these obligations before the punish their employees.
Look at the AT & T deal that just closed - $2.5 billion dollars for Isuacell. . . they are doing it with capital expenditures.
Shifting to a utility means you do support and maintenance. ThinK PSEG, Elizabethtown Gas, etc. etc. They do PSA's - not advertising.
I *think* that means you have to shift out everything not related to that into private enterprise which would then sell back to Fed Gov.
We'll have to wait and see what the FCC has in store - but I hope it's not - FCC decides and by June 2015 it just is.
Not everyone in these companies makes billions of dollars a year in salary. And this is an industry that was punished by Wall Street at the beginning of the century. There are a lot of "I was out of work for 2 years and finally the wireless and broadband business expanded and I was able to feed my family again" in this game.
I just don't want to see these people put out of work as a knee jerk reaction by Executive staffs.
Make sense? I hope the FCC is looking to PROTECT THE WORKER. It's a wait and see thing - but we should all hope they do that - wherever this goes.
Kind of a lengthy answer - but you've read me enough to know that I can sometimes look at things five different ways. 
I'll be okay if they say - bye bye. But a lot of of folks won't.
When the game is over - it's over. That's why I've got that import/export license. I can use it anywhere in the world. 
But there are only what/ Maybe 14 people in all Communications in the US that have that job? We all do our update training together at the same company based out in Long Island.
Captain Obama teleported to Starfleet Command.
