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To: entropy12
Net neutrality is redistribution of wealth by government edict. The internet is a conglomeration of privately purchased servers, routers and network paths. Each end user pays an ISP for "last mile" access. The ISP uses the proceeds to pay for buildings, power, cooling, routers, network connections to other networks and management staff. A large number of tiny businesses working in their own little space. Bandwidth is very much sensitive to how much has been invested in each small business. End to end performance steps through tens of these small enterprises. The federal government has no business forcing these small businesses to impose a tax on their users and extend subsidized service that is reimbursed by the government via the collected tax revenues. The equipment was not purchased by the government and they have no legal right to seize control of operation and use of the private property.

There is certainly a socialist faction in the internet user community that believes the net is a "public utility" somehow owned and controlled by some larger organization. They believe they have a "right" to unlimited use of this "public utility". They are dead wrong. The only part of the network that the FCC has any legal hooks in regulating to the telephone and cable companies. They provide the raw network paths between points to that large body of private businesses that run ISP businesses and server farms. The phome companies have to make a capital investment for their network equipment and generally are guaranteed a small, fixed rate of return over an allowed equipment service life. Rates are adjusted periodically to ensure a net profit for the "common carrier". They are content agnostic. It's bandwidth between two points with an agreed level of reliability of service. The telco business isn't very glamorous. I spent 12 years there as a network and IT engineer before moving on to more interesting work as a DoD contractor.

13 posted on 02/05/2017 9:41:56 PM PST by Myrddin
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To: Myrddin

Thanks for your comments. I work in the software industry and must confess I have/had that “public utility” thought. In my defense, I wasn’t aware of the things you point out. I now understand quite a bit more thanks to your effort. You’ve gone a long way to turning me around.


15 posted on 02/06/2017 12:05:44 AM PST by DeltaZulu
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