> > RoadRunner changed the ToS on one of their Ohio systems a year or two
> > ago and shut off users who were running multiple computers and/or
> > firewalls on their connections. The state public utilities commission
> > made them stop it after companies like Netgear, Linksys and Cisco
> > screamed. Comcast wanted to do something similar in MD but the public
> > service commission said no.
Will there be, or can there be a similar reaction in Fla? Do we need to
start contacting these companies?
>|> There is also a growing fear that cable
> > Internet providers may start giving bandwidth preference to some sites
> > over others now that the FCC has decided that cable ISPs are not common
> > carriers governed by telco-style regs but are "information delivery
> > services."
What technical means allow this? I suppose the QoS bits can be mangled
to prioritize traffic but this has to be done on the fly and there would
have to be a lookup on each source addr, plus the dest addr CM would
have to detect this as well. That probably means every subscriber needs
new hardware.
Besides all I use MY ISP for is a common carrier. They themselves deliver
nothing of value or interest to me.
> > It is now legal on the fed level for BrightRoadHomeRunner to
> > give you fast/easy access to CNN and slow access to MSNBC. Or even
> > decide to block NewsForge or Slashdot if we say things they don't like.
> >
> > The state regulatory bodies ar the only thing standing between you and
> > the cable ISPs. With new laws on the books that let them authorize or
> > not authorize whatever they want, the only thing keeping the cable ISPs
> > from treating you horridly is their own sense of ethics. In other words,
> > nothing.
There is similar precedent in the FCC in the broadcast world, where the
governing principle is deregulation, allowing a few giant corporations
to control virtually all the important broadcast media and in the process
homogenize programming to the lowest common denominator. They haven't
yet found a way to make the listener pay directly, although they are working
on a back door (IBOC or In-Band On-Channel digital radio) on the present
AM and FM bands. The receivers use a proprietary encoding scheme licensed
by a company called iBiquity. I believe the long range goal is to force all
analog radio off the air, then license to the end-user all the digital
radios
by pass-through from the broadcasters who have to now pay iBiquity a
license fee. And this means 100% replacement of all receivers since
there would be nothing left for the analog sets to hear, unless you can
still get Progreso in Havana on 640 AM well enough. Bob
> > - Robin
> >
> >
>
> Hmm, RoadRunner refund days ahead perhaps?
Maybe, but to whom ??
>
> -Andrew
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 17:30:52 EDT