[HN Gopher] ISPs can charge extra for fast gaming under FCC's In...
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       ISPs can charge extra for fast gaming under FCC's Internet rules,
       critics say
        
       Author : pseudolus
       Score  : 35 points
       Date   : 2024-04-16 20:54 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (arstechnica.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (arstechnica.com)
        
       | ado__dev wrote:
       | RIP Internet of old. The Internet is truly going to shit from all
       | angles. Squeezed by ever rising costs to get on the net.
       | Bombarded by ads on every single page (trying to browse the net
       | on a mobile device and most sites take up 40-50% of screen real
       | estate on ads). Subs on top of subs for every single service. We
       | really are entering a dark era.
        
         | tester756 wrote:
         | Consider using Firefox + some kind of adblock
        
         | screamingninja wrote:
         | Try NextDNS: https://nextdns.io/
        
         | gamepsys wrote:
         | We must be on different internets. The one I'm on is having a
         | golden era.
         | 
         | * My current ISP offers greater than 1000/1000 fiber for a
         | smaller monthly payment than my first home broadband connection
         | in 2003. Adjust for inflation it's probably 1/2 the cost while
         | being over 50 times better. It's incomparable to the dial up
         | before then.
         | 
         | * I don't see a lot of ads on the internet. If I see an ad on a
         | website I either upgrade my adblock or I stop going to that
         | website.
         | 
         | * I don't have a ton of subscription services. If you were to
         | tally my subscription services and weigh them against what I
         | previously used for competing services I am saving a ton of
         | money. Cable TV, DVDs, and CDs were expensive.
         | 
         | * It's so casual and fun to jump on a voice call with a group
         | of friends to play a game, or someone shares a screen of an
         | anime and we have a little movie night. It's so easy to see
         | what games my friends are playing. It's so easy to watch any
         | movie I want, or listen to any song that I want, or play any
         | game I want. The tools to have fun online are way better than
         | ever.
         | 
         | * It's possible to learn about anything I am curious about. You
         | can do everything, from getting a highschool level lecture to
         | read the latest research from the top researchers. I often find
         | experts willing to answer my questions, even though I am coming
         | in as a complete stranger.
         | 
         | * I absolutely love the move towards more independent
         | publishing. The number of interesting people I follow on
         | twitter, or youtube, or watch on twitch is insane. Before the
         | internet media felt like a monoculture with everyone watching
         | the same 40 channels on TV every night. I'm subscribed to indie
         | newsletters instead of magazines. I'm watching Starcraft 2
         | tournaments instead of the superbowl. Some of this was around
         | before the internet, but it's much more now and the long term
         | trend is looking great.
         | 
         | * I can get involved in so many interesting conversations, and
         | I rarely have problems finding interesting conversations to
         | listen in on or join in on. People from all walks of life, with
         | all kinds of perspectives.
        
       | ZoomerCretin wrote:
       | This opens the door wide enough for extortion and the end of net
       | neutrality, and for this to happen again:
       | 
       | > Second, that the company repeatedly promised reliable, "no
       | buffering," "no lag" internet, especially to services like
       | Netflix or to online games like League of Legends, but was in
       | fact purposefully letting the interconnections between TWC and
       | outside companies degrade to an alarming degree -- unless the
       | companies, like Netflix, were willing to start paying for access
       | to TWC customers.
       | 
       | > https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/02/time-warner-cable-la...
        
       | transpute wrote:
       | Which service tier would apply to ssh/vpn traffic?
        
         | ronsor wrote:
         | Premium Max Business Plus tier only, starting at $399/month for
         | 50GB of uncapped speed data
        
           | dartos wrote:
           | I remember having a cellphone in 2009 too.
        
       | Jhsto wrote:
       | The title seems to not include that this is about 5G. The next
       | question then is how many gamers really use mobile broadband in
       | the US? Ericsson making the claim that people are willing to pay
       | more for low latency might be the case in the Nordics where
       | uncapped mobile broadband starts from 3 euros/m and fiber is not
       | always available.
        
       | xyst wrote:
       | There used to (currently?) be a revolving door between bank
       | regulators and banking industry.
       | 
       | Bank regulators would "retire" after a deregulation push then
       | banking industry would so happen to hire that same person as some
       | midlevel executive or director. GS was infamous for this [1]
       | 
       | Wonder if we see the same between telcos/major ISPs and FCC
       | 
       | [1]
       | https://web.archive.org/web/20140220160810/http://www.nytime...
       | 
       | [2] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolving_door_(politics)
        
         | wmf wrote:
         | Ajit Pai went from DOJ antitrust to Verizon back to DOJ and
         | then to the FCC.
        
       | 0xcde4c3db wrote:
       | I find NN to be a tricky issue because the devil is very much in
       | the details, and the history of "platforms" and "networks" in the
       | abstract is a rich text (especially _viz._ some pretty obnoxious
       | examples of brinkmanship where multiple parties were all
       | convinced that they were the pivotal gatekeeper to the audience
       | /customer base, e.g. [1]) .
       | 
       | I don't think there's necessarily a problem with having multiple
       | service tiers where low latency/jitter or high throughput is only
       | _guaranteed_ on a higher tier. But if the network is rigged so
       | that low-tier customers get a bad experience even in low-demand
       | conditions, there 's almost certainly some unethical fuckery
       | going on. Basically, there's probably some point where "best
       | effort" needs to be imposed as a baseline rather than a premium
       | option.
       | 
       | [1] https://www.latimes.com/archives/blogs/company-town-
       | blog/sto...
        
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       (page generated 2024-04-16 23:01 UTC)