[ NNSquad ] Re: H.R. 3458, Rep. Markey's third bill proposing to regulate the Internet and ISPs

["George Ou" <george_ou@lanarchitect.net>]

First of all, what in the world does this have to do with whether Markey III
is a good proposal or not?  What does it have to do with the fact that
Markey III would ban differentiated pricing (what economists call price
discrimination) and that Markey III would try to kill the private networks
(TV services) that fund next generation broadband investments?

Also, too bad you have to resort to utterly untrue comments like "The old
canard about population density doesn't answer this.  In the U.S. we can
hardly get in our densest areas even the slowest speeds that you can get
everywhere in Japan.)".

The fastest speeds in the US is 100 Mbps, while the slowest speeds in Japan
is zero (in the more rural areas) or 1.5 for the cheaper plans.  So the
claim that our fastest is slower than their slowest is simply dumb.

Verizon does 50 Mbps but they could offer 100 or even 1000 Mbps service in
their GPON areas if there was a market they need to address.  They're
already at 10+ million homes passed with FTTH and it's growing.  At the end
of last year, AT&T had 17 million FTTN homes passed.  Comcast will be
hitting 80% of their foot print with 40 million DOCIS 3.0 homes THIS YEAR.
Within the next 3 years, it's safe to say that the vast majority homes in
America will have access to one of these three next generation broadband
technologies.  Now is this fast enough for my taste?  No, but it's no reason
to make utterly dumb claims.



George Ou

-----Original Message-----
From: nnsquad-bounces+george_ou=lanarchitect.net@nnsquad.org
[mailto:nnsquad-bounces+george_ou=lanarchitect.net@nnsquad.org] On Behalf Of
John S. Quarterman
Sent: Wednesday, August 26, 2009 3:48 PM
To: 'Lauren Weinstein'; nnsquad@nnsquad.org
Cc: John S. Quarterman
Subject: [ NNSquad ] Re: H.R. 3458, Rep. Markey's third bill proposing to
regulate the Internet and ISPs


Interesting point:

> The Internet is an unfinished demo that needs a lot more work before it
> can serve the needs of civil society and the 21st century citizen.

So why is it that many other countries (Korea, Japan, Sweden, ...)
manage to provide fast Internet everywhere, while the U.S. lags way
behind in Internet speeds and uptake?

 http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2009-08-24-speeds-digital-internet_N.htm

(The old canard about population density doesn't answer this.  In the
U.S. we can hardly get in our densest areas even the slowest speeds
that you can get everywhere in Japan.)

USA: dead last among the 29 countries speedtest.net tracks, behind
Latvia, Portugal, and Liechtenstein.

Why is this?  It's the same Internet protocols and mostly the same routers
and server and client hardware and software in all those countries.

Maybe technology is not the issue.  Could it be a decade of
regulatory capture by the telcos and cablecos?

Markey is proposing a small step towards breaking that duopoly
and restoring the environment that produced the Internet in the first place.
Good plan!

My biggest complaint with Markey's bill is it's not enough.
We need to do what FDR did.  We need an REA for the Internet,
so we can get high speed Internet access everywhere:

 
http://riskman.typepad.com/peerflow/2009/08/rea-for-fast-internet-everywhere
..html

Sure, the duopoly won't like that, either, but if they'd been doing
their free market job the U.S. wouldn't be an Internet international
and domestic backwater.

-jsq

PS: As for the ad hominem "debate", it seems to me only one side is
using such phrases as "lying through your teeth".


    [ Further discussions regarding comparisons of Internet access
      capabilities in the U.S. vs. other countries are welcome.
      
      Any new submissions referencing the current "ad hominem debate"
      will be mystically relegated to a black hole at the center of
      a galaxy far, far away.

        -- Lauren Weinstein
           NNSquad Moderator ]