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US Broadband Monopolies Once Again Push Idea That Tech Giants Should Pay Them Billions For No Reason (www.techdirt.com)

submitted 2 years ago by L4s to c/technology

9 comments fedilink hide all child comments

We’ve noted several times how European telecom giants have somehow convinced European policymakers that technology giants like Netflix and Google should annually give them billions of dollars… for no coherent reason. The proposal is dressed up to sound like a sensible adult policy aimed at shoring up broadband access to the downtrodden. In reality it’s net…

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[–] 4am 28 points 2 years ago (1 children)

Um, excuse me? So is my internet going to become free then?

What the fuck are we paying ISPs for if they just want money from the sites we connect with? The whole point of the internet is to connect sites (whether you are consuming a video on Netflix or two banks connect their networks via a secure VPN) and ISPs are the last mile to customers.

We already saw during COVID that there are really zero bandwidth problems. Fuck your double-dipping.

I’m really sick of all the artificial scarcity that tech bros try to invent.

[–] Chocrates 12 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's capitalism. In this day and age bandwidth needs to be a utility, but as long as it is treated as a consumer good we are gonna get gouged. Next year spectrum is allowed to set data caps so any of you living without a care are gonna get a slap in the face for no reason.

[–] nichos 7 points 2 years ago (1 children)

It's not at all capitalism. ISPs are a regulated monopoly. If it were capitalism there'd be a choice.

Try starting your own ISP, the government in your towb wont let you. At most this is crony capitalism.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 children)

The natural result of unregulated capitalism is something that mimics a monopoly. Monopolies are illegal in my town; I can't open an ISP because of capitalism.

[–] nichos 2 points 2 years ago

It's not at all natural, and would not have happened if government didn't step it to create a "regulated monopoly".

Fast food, gas stations, supermarkets, etc are all unregulated^1^ and there's countless offerings there. That's capitalism. This is crony capitalism. These companies work with the government to lock out competition.

1 - Yes, these industries have regulation, but there's no regulation whatsoever on opening an identical business next to an existing one. We see it all the time, a lowes next to homedepot, burger king next to mcdonalds, etc.

[–] dephyre 23 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago)

This is like the power companies charging dryer or oven manufacturers more because "they're not paying for critical infrastructure".

[–] DumpyPuppy 16 points 2 years ago

After Covid, I just don't get how a. lawmakers haven't picked up on the fact that ISPs are all monopolistic pieces of shit, b. the internet is essential to modern life, and c. in order to give internet to all americans, you gotta get rid of the ISPs.

in the IRA and countless other bills you see billions in funding for ISPs to lay out high speed internet in new areas. It hasn't worked before, why would it work now? Go to the root of the problem, disregard the lobbyists.

[–] StupendousMan 2 points 2 years ago

This isn't even double dipping, it is triple dipping. They already get paid for both ends of the connection. They want more because greed.

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