<story><title>The FCC needs to stop 5G fast lanes</title><url>https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2024/04/harmful-5g-fast-lanes-are-coming-fcc-needs-stop-them</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>EPWN3D</author><text>I was definitely someone who wrote the FCC (futilely) in support of net neutrality in 2017, and I figured the inevitable outcome of the FCC decision back then would be skyrocketing broadband costs, fast lanes, etc.&lt;p&gt;Except none of it happened. It turns out there&amp;#x27;s actually kind of okay competition in this space. Maybe not as much as there should be, but prices have stayed reasonable, broadband access is expanding, and people by and large don&amp;#x27;t seem bothered by data caps when they&amp;#x27;re subject to them, and they have access to reasonably priced, uncapped plans.&lt;p&gt;All that said, I certainly won&amp;#x27;t say no to reinstating net neutrality, since I don&amp;#x27;t think you can argue it&amp;#x27;ll make anything worse. In fact it might make competition easier. But it&amp;#x27;s not the existential pillar to online existence that we seemed to think it was.</text></item><item><author>KaiserPro</author><text>The thing that is actually missing from this entire essay is competition.&lt;p&gt;The biggest single reason why the USA&amp;#x27;s (and to a lesser extent Canada&amp;#x27;s) internet is shite is because of the monopolies that exist.&lt;p&gt;In the EU there are similar offers for &amp;quot;enhanced&amp;quot; access, but its not speeding up&amp;#x2F;slowing down apps, but giving &amp;quot;free&amp;quot; access, as in not counting to your data cap.&lt;p&gt;Instead of making the FCC stop fast lanes, the FCC should either be breaking up infrastructure from retailers (ie allowing regulated priced access like openreach) or splitting up operators and fining ones that dont provide proper access.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>free_bip</author><text>AFAIK the actual reason most of these things did not appear is because of many states passing their own net neutrality laws, such that it would be a regulatory nightmare to offer services in violation of net neutrality without coming under fire.</text></comment>
<story><title>The FCC needs to stop 5G fast lanes</title><url>https://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/blog/2024/04/harmful-5g-fast-lanes-are-coming-fcc-needs-stop-them</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>EPWN3D</author><text>I was definitely someone who wrote the FCC (futilely) in support of net neutrality in 2017, and I figured the inevitable outcome of the FCC decision back then would be skyrocketing broadband costs, fast lanes, etc.&lt;p&gt;Except none of it happened. It turns out there&amp;#x27;s actually kind of okay competition in this space. Maybe not as much as there should be, but prices have stayed reasonable, broadband access is expanding, and people by and large don&amp;#x27;t seem bothered by data caps when they&amp;#x27;re subject to them, and they have access to reasonably priced, uncapped plans.&lt;p&gt;All that said, I certainly won&amp;#x27;t say no to reinstating net neutrality, since I don&amp;#x27;t think you can argue it&amp;#x27;ll make anything worse. In fact it might make competition easier. But it&amp;#x27;s not the existential pillar to online existence that we seemed to think it was.</text></item><item><author>KaiserPro</author><text>The thing that is actually missing from this entire essay is competition.&lt;p&gt;The biggest single reason why the USA&amp;#x27;s (and to a lesser extent Canada&amp;#x27;s) internet is shite is because of the monopolies that exist.&lt;p&gt;In the EU there are similar offers for &amp;quot;enhanced&amp;quot; access, but its not speeding up&amp;#x2F;slowing down apps, but giving &amp;quot;free&amp;quot; access, as in not counting to your data cap.&lt;p&gt;Instead of making the FCC stop fast lanes, the FCC should either be breaking up infrastructure from retailers (ie allowing regulated priced access like openreach) or splitting up operators and fining ones that dont provide proper access.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>peddling-brink</author><text>I know there’s a gun pointed at my head, but listen, nobody has pulled the trigger yet, it’s fine.</text></comment>