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 jlivingoodPremium,VIP
join:2007-10-28
Philadelphia, PA
kudos:1 | reply to funchords
Re: Comcast best watch their step said by funchords:The choices seem to be: 1. Hope service providers won't run roughshod over consumer freedoms; or 2. Reclassify broadband under common carrier regulation; or 3. Wait for Congress to do something. So, taking those in order: 1. Hope is not a strategy. Right now, there is nothing preventing Comcast from ending its clear disclosures and blocking file transfers. There is nothing preventing Verizon from changing the way that Skype works on its network. There's nothing preventing AT&T from blocking any YouTube video it doesn't want to allow users to access. There's nothing stopping Windstream from redirecting Google searches to its own search engines. At any point, your ISP can deny you the right to attach a router. All of those consumer protections are toast. Re: "Right now, there is nothing preventing Comcast from ending its clear disclosures and blocking file transfers."
I'm not quite the pessimist Robb is on this one. What's not preventing it is that it'd be a huge business and PR problem for any company doing that sort of thing. This legal case aside, a pretty big market lesson was delivered a few years ago. There was a resulting shift that was very positive (having lived it myself day to day).
Transparency wins the day - it's the better technical and business choice IMHO. And when you see a company make a technical error (such as the one you cited from a few days ago) that seemed to take all of a few hours to resolve itself, so it seems there's a pretty effective feedback loop that has developed on those sorts of issues.
Jason
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| What's not preventing it is that it'd be a huge business and PR problem for any company doing that sort of thing. This legal case aside, a pretty big market lesson was delivered a few years ago. There was a resulting shift that was very positive (having lived it myself day to day). Comcast's shift toward more openness and more community engagement has been a great thing to watch. I imagine the FCC will find a way to extend their authority, though if they can't, hopefully these kinds of efforts aren't trimmed during budget cuts... | | |
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 funchordsHelloPremium,MVM
join:2001-03-11
Yarmouth Port, MA
kudos:5 | reply to jlivingood
said by jlivingood:What's not preventing it is that it'd be a huge business and PR problem for any company doing that sort of thing. True, but also true in 2006 and 2007
In official 2006 testimony to Congress, Comcast Vice President David L. Cohen said: "If Comcast were to try to 'deny, delay, or degrade' the Internet experience that our more than 9 million cable Internet customers have paid for, how can we possibly expect to keep them as customers. ... Any provider that does not meet the needs of users will suffer from a serious backlash from consumers and policymakers."
And then it started doing exactly that.
said by jlivingood:This legal case aside, a pretty big market lesson was delivered a few years ago. There was a resulting shift that was very positive (having lived it myself day to day). Transparency wins the day - it's the better technical and business choice IMHO. Glad to hear that. We literally only have your company's word to bank on.
said by jlivingood:And when you see a company make a technical error (such as the one you cited from a few days ago) that seemed to take all of a few hours to resolve itself, so it seems there's a pretty effective feedback loop that has developed on those sorts of issues. Yeah, mistake? That the functionality was no mistake. Perhaps they didn't mean to roll it out, but this was no accident.
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