'internet neutrality' supposedly under threat?

[Vimto]

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...-a8110236.html

Should we be concerned about this?
Sounds like we should.

I saw another news story elsewhere, about "Russia" posturing by loitering warships near under sea communication cables, and that , supposedly, they might be demonstrating how easily 'the internet' could be threatened if the physical links were somehow severed.

We've come to rely heavily on something that is not robust, and not easily protected.

[life on mars]

Gosh and we think the yanks are bad, I find
It so strange how we give left leaning countries/ governments, so much slack ,we rage about western occupations but very little is said of how countries like Russia annex areas /parts of the world for there self intrest and disregard human rights, diversity etc.

One eyed politics I guess.

[lardy]

Gosh and we think the yanks are bad, I find
It so strange how we give left leaning countries/ governments, so much slack ,we rage about western occupations but very little is said of how countries like Russia annex areas /parts of the world for there self intrest and disregard human rights, diversity etc.

One eyed politics I guess.

Loads and loads and loads is written and said about Russia's behaviour. More about them than any other country, in fact.

[Taunton Blue Genie]

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...-a8110236.html

Should we be concerned about this?
Sounds like we should.

I saw another news story elsewhere, about "Russia" posturing by loitering warships near under sea communication cables, and that , supposedly, they might be demonstrating how easily 'the internet' could be threatened if the physical links were somehow severed.

We've come to rely heavily on something that is not robust, and not easily protected.

Disabling electricity sources is a quick way to bring a country to its knees. Hence the development of graphite bombs etc. Without electricity, life as we know it will come to a complete stop.

[Vimto]

Indeed.

The article linked is about how our internet use may become influenced , prescribed and maybe even costed.

I muddied the waters with the second comment.

[CardiffIrish2]

Gosh and we think the yanks are bad, I find
It so strange how we give left leaning countries/ governments, so much slack ,we rage about western occupations but very little is said of how countries like Russia annex areas /parts of the world for there self intrest and disregard human rights, diversity etc.

One eyed politics I guess.

Hmmm not sure about that. As Vimto says Russia is discussed quite often and it looks like quite a seedy, gangster like state run by a complete narcissist with a personality disorder. It appears to be breeding an aggressive ideology of a perceived chip
on their shoulder, which to a certain degree I can understand given WW2 and the NATO expansion to their border.

Are they given that there is a lot of wealth in the hands of a small number of businessman a left country as you say?

[Vimto]

^^
Some truth in that, but these are the low latency, high capacity links. Secondary routes would soon become saturated. There are only so many transatlantic cables.
It is a risk. Not sure whether it is a specific risk from 'Russia' solely mind, if at all.

But , the thread was not supposed to be about that, it was supposed to be about this! :

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...-a8110236.html

[blue matt]

we have had " Bandwidth throttling " for years though, all the Big ISP throttle data from certain download places between the peak times, you look at your DL speeds in the evening compared to at night

So what if Netflix pays to have its traffic a priority, you pays your money and all that

I was once kicked off band ISP ( pipex ) as i was using too much bandwidth and they just did not want me as a customer, so they wrote to me and asked me to " stop using the net so much " and when i didnt, they kicked me, guess what, i found a ISP who wanted me and my traffic

[lardy]

we have had " Bandwidth throttling " for years though, all the Big ISP throttle data from certain download places between the peak times, you look at your DL speeds in the evening compared to at night

So what if Netflix pays to have its traffic a priority, you pays your money and all that

I was once kicked off band ISP ( pipex ) as i was using too much bandwidth and they just did not want me as a customer, so they wrote to me and asked me to " stop using the net so much " and when i didnt, they kicked me, guess what, i found a ISP who wanted me and my traffic

Where do Netflix get their money from? The consumer will end up paying more to use the net, a lot more. That's what's 'so what' about it.

[blue matt]

Where do Netflix get their money from? The consumer will end up paying more to use the net, a lot more. That's what's 'so what' about it.

Yep, if you want Netflix, you pay the premium, just the way it is now ( except it will cost a little more )

My " surfing " bandwidth will not take priority, but i accept that, maybe if i pay for a premium ISP who have some Priority then my surfing speed will increase, but i will have a choice, pay the premium or not / fast or slow

It is all about money, no surprise on that, that is life i am afraid

[Vimto]

Yep, if you want Netflix, you pay the premium, just the way it is now ( except it will cost a little more )

My " surfing " bandwidth will not take priority, but i accept that, maybe if i pay for a premium ISP who have some Priority then my surfing speed will increase, but i will have a choice, pay the premium or not / fast or slow

It is all about money, no surprise on that, that is life i am afraid

Feck me ..

[lardy]

Yep, if you want Netflix, you pay the premium, just the way it is now ( except it will cost a little more )

My " surfing " bandwidth will not take priority, but i accept that, maybe if i pay for a premium ISP who have some Priority then my surfing speed will increase, but i will have a choice, pay the premium or not / fast or slow

It is all about money, no surprise on that, that is life i am afraid

This is not the same as paying more for a better service. The existing big companies can use this to kill competition while it's young - all the innovations that have made the internet what it is, such as Netflix, will have no chance. And you and me will paying more for the pleasure.

So what?

[blue matt]

This is not the same as paying more for a better service. The existing big companies can use this to kill competition while it's young - all the innovations that have made the internet what it is, such as Netflix, will have no chance. And you and me will paying more for the pleasure.

So what?

from a personal point of view in this discussion, the existing big companies just buy the smaller competition who have thought of something innovative, the net will be made up of a few big companies who will control everything ( inc TV ) , we are heading towards it anyway, look at Facebook, they buy anything and everything, though that is not new either, AOL used to do it when i was on Dial up modem, they would see something that was " taking of " and buy it to either add it to what they have or to kill it, of course they had the money, and many of the young start-ups were happy to take the money and drive around in 911's, they were a massive ISP and had idea's of controlling the web back in the early 00's, i remember being sent a link to a PSX cheat cart in HK , it did not exist in the world of AOL , error 404, the page did exist on other ISP's, net censorship in its infancy

I have seen people on the net argue ( and from the link above ) that it will cost us more, we will have to pay for fast connections for facetime etc etc

maybe it will benefit some as they will price it in chunks

look at that link

Here’s what some people believe internet packages in the US could look like in the future, if net neutrality is ended.

Portuguese telecoms provider MEO has split its mobile plans in such a manner that customers need to pay for up to five addons, in order to be able to use a selection of popular apps that many people rely on every day without incurring heavy penalty fees.


5 for Messaging
5 for Social media
5 for Music
5 for Video streams
5 for Browsing

So for a family who use it all, they pay, for the old couple who only use it to e.mail the family, they pay 5 euro's, the elderly couple next door to them pay a extra 5 to facetime the son in Australia

[Vimto]

Indeed, is not just about bandwidth throttling, or capping - far from it - though that may be a part of the scenario.