Senator Thune leads broadband roundtable with PUC Commissioner Kristie Fiegen, others

Pat Powers

6 thoughts on “Senator Thune leads broadband roundtable with PUC Commissioner Kristie Fiegen, others”

  1. Removing net neutrality will harm South Dakota. It’s just another tax increase. Keep the internet equal for all businesses!!

    1. I am something at a loss here. How does ending net neutrality equate to a new tax? Who would be receiving this tax?

      1. It’s equivalent to a tax on small business as they won’t get equal treatment by Google and other search engines any longer. They’ll have to pay money to appear when someone searches for parts washers, for instance … (attn Mr.Tapio.

  2. MC,

    You are right. Equating an opportunity to pay more for certain internet services is not a tax when you can choose not to pay it.

    But, to the freeloader who has been getting stuff for free, . . . .

  3. “net neutrality” really means: “I get to use all the data I want at the expense of somebody who uses less than me” Why should I pay the same when I use just enough data for checking emails and bitching on Pat’s blog as someone who streams Netflix, Pandora and Hulu by the gig daily?

  4. I believe we should look at what Net Neutrality really is.

    Net neutrality is the principle that Internet service providers and governments regulating most of the Internet must treat all data on the Internet the same, and not discriminate or charge differently by user, content, website, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or method of communication.

    from Wikipedia. That means you can access Netflix or Hulu just as you would a web site or E-mail.
    The Internet Service Provider (ISP) Comcast was secretly throttling BitTorrent until the FCC told them to stop. The Madison River Communication Co got slapped for restricting access to Vonage. There are few other examples of restricting some kind of data traffic.

    There is a fear that cable companies that are also ISP may throttle or block services like Netflix that compete with their own streaming or Video on Demand service. Or to stop satellite cable companies from using their internet service to provide uplink data. The fear is cable companies/ISP may charge a premium from the customer or the streaming service to access the service.

    With the net neutrality rules removed, it would also allow cable companies/ISP to proactively add parental controls to XXX web sites and similar services. I have already fielded a couple of requests for this kind of service.

    Some cable companies are committing to maintaining net neutrality; most are not saying one way or the other.

    You can still pay Google for premium placement on their adwise.

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