[olug] [OT/Political] Letter to representative regarding ISPs and "Common Carrier" status.

[Jay Hannah]

Hey Dan,

Could I interview you about this for my podcast?  :)

Thanks,

Jay Hannah
Jay Flaunts His Ignorance. The podcast.
http://jhannah.github.io/jayflaunts/about/
jay+flaunts at jays.net
1-402-598-7782



On Jan 15, 2015, at 7:24 PM, Dan Linder <dan at linder.org> wrote:
> I apologize in advance if this is too political but most of us have some
> interest in our Internet connectivity so I thought this was a worthy post
> to the group.  What follows is what I posted to Facebook, Google+, and sent
> to her contacts page.  Feel free to discuss, or use it (in whole or in
> part) to contact your representatives. - Dan
> 
> 
> Hon. Fischer,
> 
> Today (Jan 15) I saw your comments regarding President Obamas suggestion
> that Internet Service Providers should be classified as "Common Carriers"
> under Title II of the Communications Act of 1934.
> 
> As a Republican myself I don't favor government intervention, in this case
> speaking as a professional computer engineer and long-time user of "high
> speed Internet" I must disagree and I am in strong favor of the
> reclassification. Here are my reasons why:
> 
> 1: In 1992, various Bells filed applications with the FCC for something
> called "video dialtone." To pay for these net networks, the phone companies
> lobbied state governments for financial incentives to upgrade their
> fiber-optic plants. These show up on our bills in various forms but usually
> amount to $4-5 per month per customer. In the following 23 years, this
> increase to their revenue has not gone toward the promised roll-out
> high-speed data connections to homes or working to provide broadband
> connections to the rural areas. Instead, it went toward higher profit
> margins, and additional work to squeeze out any other competition. I'm sure
> there are some examples they will pull up, but they have used the
> classification to their advantage too. See "
> http://arstechnica.com/…/fcc-urged-to-investigate-verizons…/
> <http://arstechnica.com/business/2015/01/fcc-urged-to-investigate-verizons-two-faced-statements-on-utility-rules/>
> "
> 
> 2: With the boom of the Internet and cellular phones throughout the 90's
> and early 2000s, many of these providers claimed they needed to get special
> treatment and "due to the excessive cost" they needed breaks and guarantees
> from city and state governments. These guarantees became laws, and most if
> not all of them gave them the legal standing to be the only (ONLY!)
> provider of Internet services in the areas they claimed to service. When
> cities got wise to these monopolistic practices and attempted to setup
> their own "public utility" for Internet access to their citizens, these
> companies filed lawsuits and went on extensive lobbying efforts to force
> the cities to give up these plans. Thankfully some cities have fought their
> way through and have rolled out some wildly successful networks. For
> instance, Chattanooga TN has a 1GB package for $69/month! My Cox provider
> provides me 1/40th the speed for the same price, or I can pay $150/month
> for only 1/10th the speed. Google has rolled out similar successful
> networks in other cities, and the incumbents immediately found that it
> *WAS* possible to slash their broadband prices. See "
> http://www.cnet.com/…/googles-fiber-effect-fuel-for-a-broa…/
> <http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnet.com%2Fnews%2Fgoogles-fiber-effect-fuel-for-a-broadband-explosion%2F&h=lAQG9YeBy&enc=AZO9jIBx5AwcvxXJh-CtQKfBn4kHmzKkgpIgTkwBh4Tnaj4t1_Jq7PfJApQH02g_Sb1nrQL8s4j-6PkyeUxq3h1udZP1oBqeIbePpV5LQuLdoh143QvVckSCEEmx1MM53mht8srzoCosVLlQpvryziB3pmc6k9bn1arMd8krbK3wQw&s=1>
> "
> 
> All I see when I look at the broadband market is a lot of incumbent players
> which have been sitting on their collective rear-ends taking in my money
> and not following through on the promises they made 20 years ago.
> 
> Your campaign quote said you were a "hardworking leader" - show them what
> hardworking is, and that you'll take the stance for the hardworking public
> so we can get what we've paid for all these years.
> 
> Thank you for your time.
> 
> Dan Linder
>