I have a cousin who is extremely conservative. I never talk politics with him but we recently went out to dinner with our families and he asked about net neutrality. He had a sense that he was angry about what was happening but didn’t fully understand it. By the time I finished explaining it to him he was furious about the repeal.
Good news: It appears we won’t see weakening of the definition of broadband such that mobile service qualifies.
Bad news: No indication that this FCC will address or even acknowledge lack of broadband provider competition.
Ironic that Montana is the first state to do this. I would have expected it to be Massachusetts or something.
Edit: Maybe I’m thinking of Wyoming. I know nothing about Montana politics.
Once ISPs start adding caps and bottlenecks, won’t broadband end up looking really similar to cell coverage? Pajit could just postpone the decision until then. I guess there would still be a speed difference.
Montana probably has a lot of rural folks who likely only have one choice for internet besides satellite internet, which is hardly a choice. Makes sense they would do this. Voters still count, in other words.
Montana is fairly libertarian, but they also don’t trust companies much more than the government in my experience.
They’re prime targets to get fucked over by ISPs without Net Neutrality and they know it.
That bolded part is the key. So why do the people of Montana know when GOP dickery is going to fuck them over and the rest of the people seemingly don’t?
Because it gets lost in all the mountains of other GOP dickery? Where do you start?
I suspect they’re already getting fucked pretty hard by ISPs.
Big state, low population, mostly rural. I would assume the ISPs are bending them over a barrel often and state-wide.
Wow. Alaskans have better broadband coverage than Montanans.
When I had “rural internet” choices a few years ago (in the bay area if you can beleive it) I was genuinely shocked how awful and expensive it is. Good for Montana for waking up and leading the way.
I’m more lolbertarian myself as well as from Montana (and Wyoming!), and dang if Montana ain’t great. We often have blue governors and Brian Schweitzer was something of a hero of mine.
Still, yeah, internet there is the worst. Sometimes the Pony Express would be faster. But good for us. Keep wishing that I could move back, but they need to put an ARTCC there or something.
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today signed an executive order to protect and strengthen net neutrality in New York. New York State’s government is directed through this Executive Order not to enter into any contracts for internet service unless the ISPs agree to follow net neutrality principles.
“The FCC’s dangerous ruling goes against the core values of our democracy, and New York will do everything in our power to protect net neutrality and the free exchange of ideas,” Governor Cuomo said. “With this executive order, we reaffirm our commitment to freedom and democracy and help ensure that the internet remains free and open to all.”
Interesting if NY does this, how it will affect overall stuff. It might be hard for ISP’s to do stuff like throttle traffic, if it goes through a router in NY state.
States do seem to be stepping up in an encouraging way. I’m actually starting to feel more optimistic. Also this from a few days ago:
Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia today kicked off a lawsuit to overturn the Federal Communications Commission’s repeal of net neutrality rules. Advocacy groups are also suing the FCC.
The states suing the FCC are New York, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Washington. That’s every US state with a Democratic attorney general. Republican state attorneys general did not join the petition.
Whopper Neutrality
Don’t screw with me when I’m hungry, man! 😠
This is brilliant. It wont make any difference to dumbass Republicans but hopefully will get more folks to vote Democratic in November.
That seems like a terrible idea. But also kind of hilarious.