[Achmedisdead]

I was on the road today at a friend's house, about 27 miles south of where I am at, and the LTE signal is much stronger there. The two tests circled were performed there, one inside the house (the slower one) and one outside the house. 

 

[gikigill]

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/12/fcc-chair-isps-should-be-able-to-charge-netflix-for-internet-fast-lane/

Just what the world needs right now, ISPs dictating content. Mind you, Netflix already pays them.

 

[Argyris]

I saw that earlier today. Weren't we all just talking about this. 

 
I also remember reading about how Netflix would be willing to pay for and install its own infrastructure on the ISPs' networks in order to facilitate a better experience for its streaming customers, and of course the ISPs have all refused. Anything that actually solves the "problem" takes away from their ability to exploit said "problem" to their own benefit.
 
What was that Rahm Emanuel said? "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." Especially if you manufacture the crisis, or else ignore any solutions that don't give you ultimate control over the situation. 

 

 

[gikigill]

Next they will be asking Walmart, Costco, best buy et al to pay a cut from their website sales on Black Friday/cyber Monday because the extra traffic over burdened their poor network.

 

[Argyris]

Next they will be asking Walmart, Costco, best buy et al to pay a cut from their website sales on Black Friday/cyber Monday because the extra traffic over burdened their poor network.

 
Don't give them any ideas. 

 
 
There was a time in my life when I dismissed most claims of anti-competitive behavior as exaggerations fabricated by left-wing anti-capitalists. While I am still skeptical of any blanket claim (from either side of the political aisle) about an entire sector of the population (e.g. things like "all businesses are corrupt, anti-consumer, anti-labor organizations" or "all liberals are communists"), I've become increasingly cognizant of some of the gross abuses present in the market. The US telcos and their friends, the content providers, are some of the worst actors. It gets my blood boiling every time I read about the latest scheme they're cooking up to bilk us all dry and punish us if we don't sit on our hands and take it.
 
At least there are places like Ars that report about it. Not that there's a whole lot that we can do (though the SOPA/PIPA protest was surprisingly effective), but at least I get to find out what's going on. I remember a time when Ars was a lot more focused on the technology than the legal and policy-based stuff. Alas, being a geek isn't just about the technology anymore. It's also about knowing what's going on wherever technology intersects with law and the courtroom.

 

[gikigill]

Don't worry mate most ISPs in Australia are aholes too. The current government wants to use the 100 year old copper as last mile instead of the freshly laid fibre. Reason being that the copper is owned by the largest incumbent and they will lose their grip on the market.

 

[jgray91]

Can you imagine how much collective hand wringing and anguish will go around Head Fi if one day Beats puts their substantial budget to work and designs an competent flagship orthodynamic headphone complete with an AMP/DAC to go along with it? They should do it, you know, just for kicks.

This will be fun for all the irrational haters here on HF. I just want to see the world burn...

 

[warrenpchi]

 

Can you imagine how much collective hand wringing and anguish will go around Head Fi if one day Beats puts their substantial budget to work and designs an competent flagship orthodynamic headphone complete with an AMP/DAC to go along with it? They should do it, you know, just for kicks.

This will be fun for all the irrational haters here on HF. I just want to see the world burn...

 
It would never happen.  Although, FWIW, Monster's DNA Pro is actually quite good... a radical departure from what one would associate with Beats/Monster/etc.

 

[Coq de Combat]

 
Very risky, the only outside handset provider who was able to stir things up thus far was Wind Mobile. Even so, because they're a foreign company the Canadian ISP's have been slowly gaining the market share they lost by running to the CRTC and crying about every loophole and grey area stipulation they can find to tip the playing field in their favor. Its worked well enough to slow Wind Mobile expansion and keep it out of some provinces. You know the average Canadian consumer is fed up when the vast majority would rather see a foreign company move in and gut the Canadian ISP's.

Yeah, that is a silly situation. Seems like no outside ISP is going to be able to enter without being devoured by your own ISPs. Can't they do random controlled testing to prove the throttling, and perhaps gain some land that way? Of course, it'd be hard to prove in courts that there is actual throttling being done without raising questions about the quality of the outside ISP at the same time.
 
- We can prove you're throttling our traffic!
 
- Oh welcome! Let's see here what you have here, my foreign friend. It just looks to me as you're not providing a good service in my most humble Canadian opinion. Now, how about some Poutine?
 

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2013/12/fcc-chair-isps-should-be-able-to-charge-netflix-for-internet-fast-lane/

Just what the world needs right now, ISPs dictating content. Mind you, Netflix already pays them.

That's what I was thinking of earlier in this thread when talking about American ISPs. It doesn't really seem like a good solution for anyone except the ISP.
 
It's like when Time Warner (I think) said that they had been conducting surveys and no one is interested in high speed internet. Sure, I mean, why would anyone be interested in such things? Makes no sense to me. At all. Let's all go back to 33.6k modems instead. FWIW, I miss that modem sound. 

 
I just found a source, but there were no surveys mentioned: http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2013/02/time-warner-cable/

  I saw that earlier today. Weren't we all just talking about this. 

 
I also remember reading about how Netflix would be willing to pay for and install its own infrastructure on the ISPs' networks in order to facilitate a better experience for its streaming customers, and of course the ISPs have all refused. Anything that actually solves the "problem" takes away from their ability to exploit said "problem" to their own benefit.
 
What was that Rahm Emanuel said? "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste." Especially if you manufacture the crisis, or else ignore any solutions that don't give you ultimate control over the situation. 

 

What an awesome quote. How true.
 
LOL @ ISPs refusing to let Netflix fix the networking problem. Fixing the hole in the wallet problem seems fine though. 

 

 

[DigitalFreak]

Kind of interesting how so many people seem to have a bone to pick with their ISP's. Guess greed and corruption in the business is as widespread as I thought.
@Coq de Combat
 
I decided to reedit this post because I just remembered this at the last minute. A few years ago a lot of people were seriously pissed with the mobile carriers due to a dirty trick they tried to sneak by the CRTC. In Canada you can carry a handset that's not hooked up to any service and in the event of an emergency you can dial the 911 emergency number and call for help. The providers tried to sneak one through the CRTC and wanted to charge people for using this emergency service. There was a huge outcry an the CRTC rejected it. The providers tried to do damage control by citing ballooning regional operating costs and crap like that. Pffttt, pull the other one.

 

[Makiah S]

I wonder is there any solution to having an ISP... a shame the whole situation is. Although my area jusy got a new fibre isp in town... its been stealing buisness service from time warner around my area

 

[DigitalFreak]

I wonder is there any solution to having an ISP... a shame the whole situation is. Although my area jusy got a new fibre isp in town... its been stealing buisness service from time warner around my area

i think eventually a happy medium can be found because ultimately you can't control the flow of information worldwide. Where there's a will people will find a way to get around the self serving rules their ISP's create. Unfortunately, I'm now thinking we won't see it in our lifetimes.

 

[Coq de Combat]

  Kind of interesting how so many people seem to have a bone to pick with their ISP's. Guess greed and corruption in the business is as widespread as I thought.
@Coq de Combat
 
I decided to reedit this post because I just remembered this at the last minute. A few years ago a lot of people were seriously pissed with the mobile carriers due to a dirty trick they tried to sneak by the CRTC. In Canada you can carry a handset that's not hooked up to any service and in the event of an emergency you can dial the 911 emergency number and call for help. The providers tried to sneak one through the CRTC and wanted to charge people for using this emergency service. There was a huge outcry an the CRTC rejected it. The providers tried to do damage control by citing ballooning regional operating costs and crap like that. Pffttt, pull the other one.

Charge people for calling emergency numbers!? That's just insane. 

 

[Argyris]

  Charge people for calling emergency numbers!? That's just insane. 

 
Next they'll be trying to figure out a way to charge us for air.

 

[gikigill]

   
Next they'll be trying to figure out a way to charge us for air.

Lets just hope they charge a "free" market price.