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

[Dan Linder]

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

-- 
***************** ************* *********** ******* ***** *** **
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"
    (Who can watch the watchmen?)
    -- from the Satires of Juvenal
"I do not fear computers, I fear the lack of them."
    -- Isaac Asimov (Author)
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