Wheeler: Killing net neutrality at FCC is not a slam dunk,

[Jimbo101]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2017/01/killing-net-neutrality-at-fcc-is-not-a-slam-dunk-departing-chair-says/

In his final speech before leaving the Federal Communications Commission, Chairman Tom Wheeler today made the case for why net neutrality rules are working and said that Republican commissioners won't necessarily have an easy time overturning the rules.

"Contrary to what you might have heard, reversing the Open Internet rules is not a slam dunk," Wheeler said at the Aspen Institute in Washington, DC. "The effort to undo an open Internet will face the high hurdle, imposed by the Administrative Procedure Act, of a fact-based showing that so much has changed in just two short years that a reversal is justified."

A federal appeals court last year upheld the FCC order that imposed net neutrality rules and reclassified broadband providers as common carriers under Title II of the Communications Act. Wheeler called the court decision "a strong and resounding affirmation of the FCC’s authority as well as the soundness of its decision based on the record. If there is a reversal of the Open Internet rule, it will have a high hurdle to vault to prove to the same court why its 2016 decision was wrong."

Full Transcript of Speech - Link Below:

https://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2017/db0113/DOC-343026A1.pdf

[myrna minx]

1. At least Senator Franken will be in the Senate to fight for net neutrality.

[Wellstone ruled]

2. This is one of Comcast's

number one reasons in backing Trump and the GOP. Now the story going is,ATT&T Time Warner is also a slam dunk .

The cost of Internet will be based solely on speed. And watch the price skyrocket by this time next year.

[hunter]

3. Comcast cash reserves: about 3 billion dollars. ATT cash reserves: about 6 billion.

Time Warner : 2.3 billion

Apple-Microsoft-Google-Cisco-Oracle cash reserves: about 500 billion.

Throw into the mix Google's, Amazon's, and Facebook's monster server capacity, and you have giant corporations that can crush the telcoms.

This is a negotiated surrender by the telcoms. They are fighting to retain some share of the business. Much of their infrastructure and their old business models are obsolete.

(All figures are back-of-the-envelope stuff, to illustrate the magnitude of the disparities.)

If the telcoms and their pet congress people want to pursue this then it's going to get ugly. Aunt Sally and Uncle Joe are going to start asking why they can't have cheap on-demand video like their relatives living in other cities and states do.

Ideally the U.S. would follow the lead of nations like Canada and Finland with various internet-for-all initiatives. Once upon a time this nation could accomplish things like rural electrification, rural phone service, and the interstate highway system.

I guess the Republicans Party wants our nation to be more like Russia where nothing gets done unless you pay off the right people. Trump fits right in with that crowd.

[Wellstone ruled]

4. Been a critic

of Comcast for years as well as att&t. As for Comcast,try this,our suburb of Mpls as well as two adjacent ones formed our own Cable system. Rates four dollars a month for 21 channels,and this was sold to King Video which raised our rates to Seven dollars,later this company became part of Jones Cable which later became Comcast. The Seven dollars turned to 48 dollars over a 24 month time frame with the same programing. With in fifteen years these rates went to 80 plus. Just one example. BTW,when Jones Cable merged with the group that became Comcast,the value of our little Cable company which was Community owned,carried a value of 1.5 Billion. Same friggen 1980 fiber and same crappy progroming and now it is 1990 with all kinds of extra costs. As far as ATT&T,they fleeced their shareholders for Billions with a Bankruptcy caused by Corporate miss management. And many of those same people are still in place.