I had forgetten it was a supreme court ruling, I had thought it was just an FCC ruling...
If I remember correctly the crux of the arguement, was that telephone companies wanted the cable companies to lease their lines like they had to, as cable companies were begining to get in on providing internet service. They argued since they had to do it, so should the cable companies, but the cable companies were able to argue that they were not a telecommuncation service, they were just providing bits of data. Well most consumer groups and others who actually care about these types of things knew this was bunk....but the boneheads who are in charge of the supreme court bought the cable companies arguement...and what do we have? No real competition and continued price hikes and the little guy getting screwed again... In fact if I remember correctly, the cable companies argued that by allowing their lines to be leased they would have to raise rates and possibly go to tiered pricing which would be bad for consumers.... I guess the only recouse any of us have is that the FCC and Congress gets their heads out of their asses and adjust the laws accordingly and take control of the issue..... So I guess we should just bend over now, right.... Heath http://heathparks.com --- In videoblogging@yahoogroups.com, "Richard (Show) Hall" <rich...@...> wrote: > > For the record, ISP competition was squelched legally, so it's not even > really possible to have competition with high speed internet. > > The supreme court ruled in 2005 that cable companies were not bound by > common carriage laws (they did not have to allow competitors use their lines > like phone companies have to). This was followed by a decision by the FCC > that DSL was also free to ignore common carriage. > > So, in most places in the US you have a choice of DSL or Cable and only one > company for each, and, in many places (like where I live) there is only one > choice (DSL). > > For anyone more interested in details I wrote a blog post about it a while > ago. > > http://richardshow.org/blog/2008/02/15/free-market-net-neutrality-and-common-carriage/ > > ... Richard > > > On Fri, Apr 10, 2009 at 4:20 PM, Rupert <rup...@...> wrote: > > > Yes, it's true that it's limited in the UK. But there's a lot of > > competition between providers, which I understand is not the case in > > the US - or in Canada. Or at least there was a lot of competition > > last time I looked. Hundreds of independent local companies. Elbows > > would probably know more and confirm or deny this... > > > > On 10-Apr-09, at 2:09 PM, Jay dedman wrote: > > > > > I mentioned this in another thread, but I think it's important enough > > > to repost here. In the US, the major broadband providers are planning > > > to ending "unlimited" packages and start charging for broadband. > > > Time/Warner is the test case. See below. > > > > > > I've heard that limiting bandwidth is common in Europe (true?), but > > > this is new behavior in the US where broadband providers have now > > > consolidated into just 4 major corporations that now control internet > > > access in most regions. > > > > > > As private companies, they can do what they want. Customers now must > > > start making a choice of who they want to support. > > > > > > Jay > > > > > > > > > > > > __________________________________ > > > > > > Rep. Eric Massa was outspoken in his opposition to Time Warner Cable's > > > plan, calling it a monopolistic move to penalize robust Net users and > > > "stagnate the 21st Century technology needed to rebuild America." > > > > > > What really happening is TWC is unfairly trying to protect its cable > > > TV profits from people switching over to online video. By making it > > > prohibitively expensive for their 8.4 million customers to do much > > > more than email and basic Web surfing, they hope to kill Internet > > > video before it's any more popular. > > > > > > We're going out to our 500,000 activists asking other members of > > > Congress to join Massa and call for a thorough investigation of these > > > ant-competitive practices. > > > > > > Making Time Warner the Internet's evil poster child is particularly > > > urgent now. Other cable and phone providers (including AT&T, Charter, > > > Cox and Comcast) are watching TWC's trial balloon with plans to > > > implement their own anti-video pricing schemes. > > > > > > The outreach is below. Here's the presser: > > http://www.freepress.net/node/56030 > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > > > -- > Richard (Show) Hall > http://richardshow.org > > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] >
