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Tech News & Commentary
John in Anderson, Indiana listening to the Podcast and calling via the App asked us: “I’d like some clarity on Net Neutrality. People in the president’s party praise it as the greatest thing since sliced bread. People in the other party, condemn it as a shameful power grab; a government takeover of the Internet. As usual, I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle of these two extremes, so I’d like to hear you talk about it and shed some light in net neutrality.”
John, From the consumer’s point of view, most agree that Net Neutrality is great. It means that ISPs – Internet Service Providers — can’t slow you down when you try to access certain sites and charge you or them an extra fee to give you access to the full speed you’re already paying for.
As an example of that, here’s a video from before Net Neutrality, in the video a user on FIOS tries to access a Netflix test video. After minutes of buffering he reaches speeds of 0.3mbps, when he turns on a VPN service that hides where his traffic is going to (his ISP doesn’t know he’s accessing Netflix), the video loads instantly and his speeds are 10 times faster at 3 mbps.
In that Netflix was being artificially slowed down to try to extort extra fees from the company to “ensure a fast connection,” but many people worried that the same problem would trickle down to consumers, and that they’d eventually have to buy a “streaming package” from the ISP that would allow full speed on sites like YouTube, Hulu, Netflix and many other sites. Net Neutrality takes care of that, the internet is not allowed to have artificial slow lanes to specific sites now.
The primary criticism is that the FCC’s action of reclassifying Internet Service Providers (or ISPs for short) as Title II common carriers under the Communications Act of 1934 gives the government the right to “tax the Internet.” This claim comes from something called the Universal Service Fund. USF is a fee you pay on your telephone bill, assuming you have a landline telephone, that is used to provide subsidized telephone service for those who cannot afford it.
In other words, the government decided that having a telephone was necessary and because it was necessary, people should have assistance in getting one if they couldn’t afford it. As you can imagine, almost 100 years ago, telephone service was expensive and not everyone could afford it. Today, it’s becoming common to find people don’t even have a traditional phone line at all, using a VoIP provider like Vonage or just using their cell phone as their only phone. The Telecommunications Act of 1996 modified the goal of universal service to include providing Internet access for low income users, as well as schools, libraries, remote communities, and more. That’s all being paid for by fees from standard telephone service.
The FCC has said they have no plans to implement the Universal Service Fee for Internet service, but at the same time it’s not really in their hands. The Federal-State Joint Board on Universal Service, created in 1996 to administer the USF, has the ultimate decision on this. So it is certainly possible that a Universal Service Fee could make its way on to your broadband bill. And thus we have the claim that an Internet tax is coming.
Only we don’t know that it is coming. And the USF amount is tiny, extremely tiny in comparison to the taxes and fees you already pay. So if the USF is added to broadband, you’ll barely notice it. So why are these claims of an Internet tax being made? Politics, mostly. No one bothers to actually think any more, or examine issues on an individual basis. We just react in a knee jerk manner according to which side of the aisle we sit on. The word tax whips conservatives into a frenzy, but it’s not always warranted.
We think the benefits of Title II regulation of Internet Service Providers FAR outweighs the risk that a very small fee might be added to our broadband bill at some point. Title II will prevent the cable and telco companies from using their status as utility providers to run networks but then blocking any competition over those networks. It will increase competition, not lessen it.
It will also prevent arbitrary throttling of your high speed Internet connection and prevent your Internet Service Provider from punishing people who are heavier users of the service.
Net neutrality is a concept, not a law. We support it without reservations. This recent FCC Title II action isn’t net neutrality itself, but rather it’s a government action to ensure net neutrality. We might have reservations about the government stepping in to help, but the plain fact is, Internet Service Providers have been gouging and abusing customers, running an absolute monopoly in their service areas, so if this regulation is a bitter pill for them to swallow, they have no one to blame but themselves.
Now, aren’t you glad you asked, John? We are! Thanks for calling.
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
Consumer Reports Feature:
So you managed to resist both the Black Friday specials last year and the heavy Super Bowl TV promotions in January, but now you’re ready to spring for a new big screen set. Well, you’re in luck. Now is the time to score a great deal on one of last year’s models, which retailers are trying to unload to make room for the newer lineup, so says Consumer Reports. Their electronics spokesman James McQueen is here with some recommendations.
Guest Segment:
Saypol Tompkins, President & CEO – Gifting 365
personalizes games to be sent as e-cards
John in Bossier City, Louisiana listens on 710 KEEL asked us: “I heard something the other day about downloading a radio app to my phone that I could never lose or it would always be there if we lost communication some other way. I was wondering if you were familiar with that because I never heard it again and haven’t found it online”
John, Your cellphone has just a few ways of interacting with the world, there’s probably a jack of some kind, that won’t help you very much, a cellular radio and probably a WiFi and bluetooth chip.
Of those, the cellular radio is by far the one that will keep you connected over the longest distances, the theoretical maximum can be as much as 45 miles, so that will easily be the most likely way to keep you connected. If that fails, WiFi has the second best range, so apps that let you make VoIP over WiFi would work if you’re in range of a network.
However, it sounds like what you’re looking for is a backup to those, and for that you’d need access to hardware other than what your phone already provides, so you may have heard about goTenna. It connects via bluetooth to the phone but works as it’s own antenna with a theoretical range of around 50 miles.
You will need another goTenna owner to be able to communicate, though, which may be a problem since they’re only available for pre-order right now…
For more information tune in to Hour 1 of our podcast.
This Week’s Prizes for Our Listeners
Burg: Burg 16A Smartwatch – connects with iOS and Android phones, offering handsfree calling, text and e-mail notifications and more!
Education.Com: Several “Brainzy” 12-month codes for online early-learning programs for math and reading. If you’ve got Kids … you WANT one of these!
HD Radio: “Into Tomorrow” branded Portable AM/FM/HD Radios – these are in high demand and give you more FREE radio — the way it should be!
LG: An LG ‘G’ Vista Smartphone with an extra large display and good battery life.
NanoTech: Several UltraFlix Gift Cards for 4K Content, like movies and a ton of other cool stuff. Let us know if you have a 4K Ultra HD TV!
NovaPhotos: A couple of their cool Bluetooth off-camera FLASH units for iPhone (that we featured in a recent ITTV piece). Perfect for Selfies. They have 40 LEDs!