- cross-posted to:
- worldnews@lemmy.ml
cross-posted from: https://vlemmy.net/post/152995
Alternative published title: AT&T/Verizon lobby group pushes for payments from Big Tech
orbit ( @orbit@beehaw.org ) 142•1 year agoOr maybe we should hold ISPs accountable for the $400 Billion they pocketed instead of laying fiber in the late 90s.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/the-book-of-broken-promis_b_5839394
Jentu ( @Jentu@beehaw.org ) English38•1 year agoYeah I’m surprised they’re saying anything about this since it immediately made me remember that garbage they pulled.
RoverStoker ( @RoverStoker@beehaw.org ) English7•1 year agoRetired telecom worker here:
Every single time your telecommunications provider goes to DC to lobby against their taxes they promise “Please oh please please if you’ll just lower our taxes we pinky swear to expand broadband. We’re going to expand the reach of DSL, we’re gonna lay cable for Uverse internet, we’re invented this thing where high speed internet goes over your electrical grid. We promise you we can do the thing if only you’ll cut our taxes.”
So DC does and guess what happens? Job cuts. Cut back on techs needed to actually do the work. The money is used for stock buy backs, to buy a company or two (bought at a high price then sold at a loss of course) and the CEO bails with a golden parachute:
olgreeneyes ( @olgreeneyes@beehaw.org ) 24•1 year agoMaybe they figured we had all forgotten about that by now lol
LegendofDragoon ( @LegendofDragoon@kbin.social ) 8•1 year agoNever forget, never forgive
TechyDad ( @TechyDad@beehaw.org ) 7•1 year agoISPs: “Fine. We’ll build fiber now. And this time, we’ll do it for only $350 billion. Such a bargain!”
sadreality ( @sadreality@kbin.social ) 14•1 year agoThey surely do love that corporate socialism when daddy sam is paying but “free markets” where they are a monopoly when they are raising my bill every year.
seang96 ( @seang96@spgrn.com ) 10•1 year agoI wish. I also wish I could be connected to the fiber that is literally 1 mile away from my house.
Spitfire ( @Spitfire@pawb.social ) 9•1 year agoI wish I had fiber as an option at all in our area.
Only options are comcast or DSL. Both suck.
seang96 ( @seang96@spgrn.com ) 4•1 year agoI got cable (spectrum) with terrible latency, T-Mobile 5g, this one was new this year, and DSL… I do wish i was closer to that fiber line lol
SkepticElliptic ( @SkepticElliptic@beehaw.org ) 2•1 year agoHave you checked lately? There’s WISPs popping up all the time and there are more cellular based options than ever. I’m using T-Mobile for $50/month I’m getting 250Mbps download.
SoManyChoices ( @SoManyChoices@lemmy.sdf.org ) 6•1 year agoI have fiber but my town is building muni fiber that will be $25/mo cheaper for the same speeds. They just finished another segment. It stops 200 ft south of my property. They’ll be back to finish the area in about 18 months after they do most of the north side of town first.
seang96 ( @seang96@spgrn.com ) 1•1 year agoJealous they actually plan to expand your side better than not knowing at least!
smstnitc ( @smstnitc@lemmy2.addictmud.org ) 5•1 year agoI just moved, but my previous house has fiber 100 feet away, but the ISP wouldn’t hook me up because they insisted that they needed at least 10 houses to commit in a neighborhood before they’d put service in it. I tried to get my neighbors on board for 3 years before I sold my house to move an hour away. Still no fiber, but there’s no fiber to tease me with now, heh
Weaselmaster ( @Weaselmaster@beehaw.org ) 2•1 year agoI have fiber running LITERALLY through my back yard, because they couldn’t be bothered to string it from pole to pole for my neighbor, but yet they ‘Can’t’ run service to my building with 7 households/customers.
seang96 ( @seang96@spgrn.com ) 1•1 year agoSuch a shame. It would even be more helpful to other neighbors by bringing competition in.
cstine ( @cstine@lemmy.uncomfortable.business ) 38•1 year agoFunny, when Google started building fiber, ISPs threw a fit and tried to make it illegal in a lot of places for big tech to build broadband networks.
So uh, which is it guys?
Another Person ( @AnotherPerson@beehaw.org ) 35•1 year agoWe need municipal and public utility broadband.
sadreality ( @sadreality@kbin.social ) 11•1 year agoWe sure do but the ISP lobby does not permit it and instead they are able to funnel taxpayer money into executive and shareholder pockets. See comment above.
Shdwdrgn ( @Shdwdrgn@mander.xyz ) 5•1 year agoThey don’t always succeed.
Sitting comfortably in Longmont, Colorado
Realtrain ( @Realtrain@kbin.social ) 4•1 year agoCan confirm, we have it and it’s fantastic. Super reliable symmetrical gigabit for $60/month
Another Person ( @AnotherPerson@beehaw.org ) 2•1 year agoAgreed. I have the same deal.
ArugulaZ ( @ArugulaZ@kbin.social ) 21•1 year agoThey were paid to do this thirty years ago! Instead, they stuffed the money in their pockets and did next to nothing to earn it.
Wait wait. AT&T and Verizon want money from other companies? THEY were the ones given tax breaks to do it themselves!
artisanrox ( @artisanrox@kbin.social ) 16•1 year agoISPs already got money for this.
They can all go provide more dumpster fire kindling with Elno, spez and Zuck.
Vinegar ( @Vinegar@kbin.social ) 13•1 year agoI expect to see further erosion of Net Neutrality if big tech firms are required to pay for internet infrastructure. I have no love for big tech, but if they are required to pay for infrastructure, then how long until smaller companies and hosts are required to pay? The Biden administration seems to agree: “[it] is difficult to understand how a system of mandatory payments imposed on only a subset of content providers could be enforced without undermining net neutrality.” I have no love for ISPs either - ISPs should be run as public utilities, not as for-profit private corporate conglomerates.
As others have already pointed out the US government (and Comcast, Verizon, & Century Link customers) have been defrauded by the major telecom companies for nearly 30 years worth at least $400 billion dollars (data from 2014, the current total is likely over $700 billion). They’ve been pocketing obscene amounts of money instead of investing in infrastructure for decades, at this point additional infrastructure should be publicly funded, owned & operated and the telecommunications companies should be forced to sell the internet infrastructure to local public utilities.
The Irregulators are a group of experts who have been fighting this fraud since 1999, and they have a couple books about this:
magnetosphere ( @HappyMeatbag@beehaw.org ) 12•1 year agoThis is like Godzilla and Mothra arguing about who should pay to rebuild downtown Tokyo after one of their brawls. Meanwhile, the citizens don’t care who picks up the tab. They just want it done.
- argv_minus_one ( @argv_minus_one@beehaw.org ) 3•1 year ago
ISPs are the greater threat here. Big Tech may be popular, but you aren’t actually forced to use it. You are forced to use whichever ISP is available in your area.
Wander ( @Wander@yiffit.net ) 10•1 year agoPlease no. I don’t like big ISPs, but neither do I want big tech to feel entitled to control the network infrastructure somehow more than they already do.
falsem ( @falsem@kbin.social ) 9•1 year agoThis is like building a toll road then not only charging the people driving on it but also charging their destinations too. Hilarious.
RadioRat ( @RadioRat@beehaw.org ) 6•1 year agoHmmmm…wonder whose fault it is that many municipalities won’t approve new line construction by upstart ISPs 🤔
It couldn’t have anything to do with lobbying by monopolistic ISPs.
Realtrain ( @Realtrain@kbin.social ) 5•1 year agoThat’s like asking Whirlpool and Kenmore to pay for water and sewer expansion.
KrombopulosMikl ( @KrombopulosMikl@lemmynsfw.com ) 5•1 year agoI don’t understand. It’s not like Big Tech or anyone using their services is just hopping on the internet for free, right? Just like any other business, you use your profits to expand. Or is there something I’m missing?
SkepticElliptic ( @SkepticElliptic@beehaw.org ) 19•1 year agoNope, they’re literally bitching because their customers are actually using the service they pay the isp for.
magnetosphere ( @HappyMeatbag@beehaw.org ) 3•1 year agoThe Biden administration last month urged the EU to reject the forced payments proposed by European ISPs, saying the plan “could give operators a new bottleneck over customers, raise costs for end users, and alter incentives for CAPs/LTGs [content and application providers and large traffic generators] to make efficient decisions regarding network investment and interconnection.”
The Biden administration also said payments from tech firms may violate net neutrality principles, saying that it “is difficult to understand how a system of mandatory payments imposed on only a subset of content providers could be enforced without undermining net neutrality.”
So… did someone from the administration even bother writing this themselves, or did they just copy/paste what Meta sent them?
- argv_minus_one ( @argv_minus_one@beehaw.org ) 3•1 year ago
Even if it was written by Meta, it still isn’t wrong.
!ozoned@lemmy.world ( @ozoned@beehaw.org ) 3•1 year agoPoor ISPs! Why does everyone pick on them?
Oh wait … 97% profit margin on internet, they trying to get that up to 99%?
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/time-warner-cables-97-pro_b_6591916