Finally some good news: Obama is for Net Neutrality

[Philly]

Ah the Herman Cain approach.

[Aaron]

The net should have always been a utility

[Professor]

[eric]

[Indy]

Great post Eric and one thing that you hinted at: many towns/municipalities have planned to offer free wireless Internet/broadband (which would also be great for lower-income people) and those attempts have been stuffed by... you guessed it, the telecom lobby.

Again, another example of how in this country industry is telling gov't to do, and not the other way around.

[Professor]

[eric]

Professor-

And I think that's the thing. Doesn't Cable TV just suck? And it would be different if there were opportunities for competitions, but frankly these companies just mark off territory and don't compete in a lot of cases. By treating the lines as utility lines, ISPs will have to let others use the lines, and so then we might actually see competition in pricing and service.

As it stands now, these companies are preventing competition, and engaging in monpolistic practices. *cough timewarner-comcast* *cough ATT-Dish (or whatever they were buying, and Tmobile too)*

I think the sentiment of many, if not most people, is that the Internet is great how it is. use whatever websites you want, pay a LOW monthly fee for high speed access, and get on with your lives.

[Professor]

[Indy]

Here's another analogy: you have to take a certain tollway to work every day. The company that owns the freeway also happens to make cars.

They then decide to dedicate two of the four lanes of the freeway only for people who own their cars. So while those guys are zipping into work and back every day effortlessly, you're in gridlock for hours in each direction. Unless you buy one of their cars--even though you're already paying them to use the tollway. A lot.

[eric]