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Old 01-07-2015, 07:11 AM   #113
flere-imsaho
Coordinator
 
Join Date: Sep 2004
Location: Chicagoland
Quote:
Originally Posted by ISiddiqui View Post
Ooops, I guess I was thinking of RM. Everyone just all blends in as the years go by .

We're getting old....

Quote:
Anyways, you are making the same problematic arguments that RM did. Cable companies are not the same as the telecoms. The last mile stuff are not fiber backbone upgrades for cable companies - it's usually just cable. The main reason that the government has been helping the telecoms is..... to provide competition for the cable companies. I'm sure they'd be fine if you went after the telecoms, as it'd just strengthen the cable companies.

Except when cable companies (and or TV/Internet providers) are, of course.

But that's parsing the argument too closely. Regardless of who they are, the industry receives plenty of support, from tax breaks to subsidies for infrastructure development to using an infrastructure originally built with taxpayer dollars. Barring an actual, demonstrable saturation problem, I don't think there's a defensible argument for data caps outside of "hey, we'd like to make more money".

If the argument is "our networks can't handle the demand" then the proper rejoinder is "well, what happened to the $billions we gave you to increase capacity? and "most other industries with healthy profits react to increased demand by increasing supply, why aren't you?"


But, again, we have given this industry, from the backbone to the last mile, plenty of support as taxpayers. And we continue to do so. If we're going to allow these companies to meter and filter internet traffic, then by all means let it be a free market, cut off the flow of taxpayer money, and let them invest their healthy profits in supporting their enterprise. But if they want this money, it's simply not right to take the money, and then soak the taxpayer on the other end. While the average Joe may never see it this way, if that's the direction we're going, we might as well get a better bang for our buck by turning it into a public utility (administered via bid by private companies would be my preference, but there you go).
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