back to article FCC commish: We don't need no steenkin' net neutrality rules

There's no need to issue new network neutrality rules since they wouldn't necessarily have any benefit, and people don’t really care about network performance issues, according to US FCC commissioner Michael O’Reilly. The Republican commissioner made the comments in an op-ed piece for National Review, co-written with …

  1. IglooDude

    Chairman Wheeler & cronies are probably going to try and let memories fade and then pull a fait accompli in a few months. *sigh*

  2. ratfox
    Facepalm

    Good thing

    That I don't live in the US, I mean.

    1. MachDiamond Silver badge

      Re: Good thing

      It won't matter where you are in the world if the FCC gets pwnd by the ISP's. If any connection to content you want routes through the US, you may get shunted to the slow lane if the creator can't/won't pay the squeeze.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Good thing

        This is why I moved all of my servers out of the Unites States shortly after 2002. Now I avoid using any services that are hosted in the United States whenever possible. Some of these are major business decisions, since doing IT business in the United States is only getting worse.

        I have no idea why your government is adamant at making it harder and harder for your companies to be competitive on the Internet, but it's going to really backfire one day. It's sad too, because 15 years ago it was an awesome part of the Internet for everything.

  3. ShadowedOne

    "...people don’t really care about network performance issues..."

    Seriously??

    1. Mark 85

      Yep.. O’Rielly thinks "seriously". Since most of these clowns are either political shills or industry shills, they believe what their masters tell them.

  4. DerekCurrie

    …And Those Who Pull His Strings…

    Mr. Thomas Wheeler and those who pull his strings Don't give a damn what the MASSES of US citizens have to say about their ruination of actual/factual Net Neutrality. We The People be damned. That's what we're going to see this September.

    And the rest of the world will shout for revolution once the resulting catastrophic mess becomes public and clear to all.

    So long joyful Internet. The Corporate Oligarchy is taking over this place! Hand over the extortion fees and play nice or we're gonna make you hurt even worse. Sick stuff, already in action. Isn't it, Verizon?

    1. RedneckMother

      Re: …And Those Who Pull His Strings…

      So true, so true. The People are "consumers", as opposed to, say, "customers" (as far as the "providers" think), and "constituents" as opposed to, say, "the bosses" (as far as the ignorant, uncaring, office holding twits think - or is that "renumerated"?).

      Revolution? Bring it on! Unfortunately, I think it will be yet another "meh" for the world at large.

      BTW: :s/is taking/has taken/

      fait accompli

      1. Richard Jones 1
        Facepalm

        Re: …And Those Who Pull His Strings…

        Almost there, customers are either money pits to be dug or turkeys to be plucked - perhaps both. And the FCC Commissioner is the dumb plucker, (did I type that right?) who will see they get robbed.

  5. Al Jones

    "Broadband providers would be expected to report on every aspect of their practices and services, including metrics like jitter and packet corruption, which are unlikely to be meaningful to the average consumer," the Republican duo assert.

    "Expensive and burdensome reports that add no measurable consumer benefit are exactly the type of regulatory overreach that cost-benefit analysis is meant to prevent."

    I can assure you that the average consumer wouldn't be able to make head nor tail of the regulatory reports that the Pharma, AgriFood, Auto, and Power Generation industries are required to file, but that's certainly not an argument that we don't need to regulate these industries.

    (I deliberately left out the Financial industry, because they don't even understand the reports that they file).

    1. dan1980

      @Al Jones

      Right you are - most consumers wouldn't be able to understand the reports. But of course that's irrelevant. What is relevant, however, is that they are required to be transparent so that those with the ability to digest it all can do so and then inform the public. Often this task falls to media outlets - like The Register - who obtain the information, ask those in the know, get comments from the providers and then explain it all to their readers.

      I don't understand most of the stuff that gets published by my government but, again, the media and independent experts process this and relay it to the public.

  6. Gray
    Devil

    Silly twats!

    Yer just don't get it, do yers ... as the Chairman of a once mighty US auto builder once said (back in a day when his hubris was soundy criticized as being a touch too arrogant):

    "What's good for [insert name of corporation] is good for [insert name of nation]!"

    Shirley all that goodness can't be wrong, right?

  7. Marcelo Rodrigues
    Devil

    Their loss

    The Good Thing™ about the Internet is: we can always route around the problem.

    Keeping this pace in a few years the rest of the world will have route that don't cross the USA. And they will be "isolated", by their own actions.

    Even the content industry will get out - it will be too hard to keep track of all the "speed payments".

    Dibs on the first row. And a poppcorn, please.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Too late!

    Saying that when the FCC gets pwned by ISP's is ignoring the fact that Wheeler and the previous FCC chairman both came from the industry and the previous FCC chairman went back to the industry and both were in the industries hall of fame for services to the industry. The FCC was as corrupt years ago as it will be in years to come. Working to the will of those that they previously served and to hell with protecting the interests of those that they are supposed to be protecting i.e. consumer.

    They are just a lap dog for the cable industry and ISP's!

  9. StimuliC

    Too late!

    Saying that when the FCC gets pwned by ISP's is ignoring the fact that Wheeler and the previous FCC chairman both came from the industry and the previous FCC chairman went back to the industry and both were in the industries hall of fame for services to the industry. The FCC was as corrupt years ago as it will be in years to come. Working to the will of those that they previously served and to hell with protecting the interests of those that they are supposed to be protecting i.e. consumer.

    They are just a lap dog for the cable industry and ISP's!

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    One more bit of evidence that the United States is ruled by the wealthy and wealthy corporations. More and more legislation will be passed to benefit only the wealthy!

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Just have to wonder if this would make the NSA's job easier - all the traffic they are interested in can be routed through a nice slow pipe their systems can handle..

  12. All names Taken
    Paris Hilton

    Hmmm - it seems difficult doodz!

    In the small picture FCC rulez but in the big picture inferences abound that FCC and similar are merely political arms of influence and interference usually intent on maintaining US dominance -shrug-

    Time will tell?

  13. dan1980

    Cost-benefit analysis

    On the one hand, I agree that one should never just assume that a given goal is desirable. That's no way to make policy affecting a varied group of citizens and businesses with differing requirements, interests and points of view.

    O'Reilly and Blackburn say that you shouldn't jump to the conclusion that Net Neutrality is a good thing without doing a 'cost-benefit analysis' but yet they seem perfectly happy to jump to the opposite conclusion.

    While I agree, as above, that you shouldn't just take something as fact, what is the scope of such a cost-benefit analysis? How far into the future does it look? How accurate can it be without predicting future uses of the Internet? A lot of the problems with laws dealing with technology - be they patent laws or those dealing with retransmission (see the Aereo case) - stem from the fact that many of them were penned before the existence of the technologies and uses that they now cover.

    Also, what metrics would be used to do this analysis? Would you just take the ISPs' word on how much the reporting will cost them? On their internal speeds and capabilities? On traffic from edge providers or CDNs? More likely, O'Reill is simply working off an assertion from ISPs that consumers would be worse off. Trust us . . .

  14. Cellco Cabal Buster

    Cellco's that do "traffic shaping"

    Neutrality is big issue for Android phone users, My Android 4.2.1 phone was working nicely for months - then the access and sync to any google apps (mail, maps, chrome etc) began to get flaky - sync errors, intermittent/no network connection - but everything was fine using WiFi.

    Other apps like FB, Skype etc work OK using the Vodafone data connection. It is ONLY the google stuff that does not. I assume there is a separate port or some proxy issue that Vodafone have managed to screw up.

    All the evidence suggests that the Vodafone internet data route to google is messing up the link along the way.

    Of course Vodafone have no suggestions based on the reported issues, and instead go into some sort of "automated" response sequence, and suggest deleting everything, take out the battery and SIM, and reinstalling. And if all else fails, sacrifice a virgin.

    But that simply does not address the fact that it all works with WiFi, but doesn't using their own 3G internet service.

    The word is that "traffic shaping" is going on surreptitiously (a euphemism for prioritising customers on fatter tariffs). So I asked Google for a record of my logins, including failed sync sessions, since the amount of Data Google knows about your android devices is already considerable. It will be interesting to see what response I get.

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