SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ SATURDAY, DECEMBER 16, 2017
Internet
from 1A
A pivotal moment came with
a court victory by Verizon in
2014, when the D.C. Circuit
Court
exempted
service
providers such as Verizon from
FCC net neutrality rules as long
as they were not “common carri-
ers,” a classification reserved for
public utilities.
A public debate then ensued
as the FCC weighed whether to
reclassify internet providers as
common carriers or institute a
tiered system with “fast lanes”
and “slow lanes” based on how
much a customer paid.
A massive public and even
presidential rejection of the
tiered system moved the FCC to
decide in its landmark 2015
Open Internet Order to classify
broadband providers as common
carriers under Title II of the
Telecommunications Act of
1934, effectively putting all
service providers under FCC
regulatory jurisdiction. The
order also instituted distinct bans
against blocking content, “throt-
tling” traffic and paid prioritiza-
tion (which can lead to a tiered
system) on grounds that “broad-
band providers hold all the tools
necessary to deceive consumers,
degrade content, or disfavor the
content that they don’t like.”
Last Thursday’s decision
marked the latest turning point in
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what has been an ongoing battle
because it guts what net neutral-
ity advocates consider the most
important elements of the 2015
order, including the bans on
blocking, throttling, paid priori-
tization and the general conduct
rule — which allows the FCC to
review and punish discriminato-
ry actions.
The degree of concern for
consumers regarding Thursday’s
repeal depends on what points of
contact they use for the internet.
Worries over how their cable
line connection at home might
be manipulated by ISPs differs
from concerns about how mobile
service could be tampered with
by mobile providers. And, in
some cases, the same company
may cover both.
Florence residents are rela-
tively lucky in that they have
their pick from among large and
small providers for their internet
needs. Larger providers like
Charter Communications (which
brands its broadband service as
Spectrum) and CenturyLink,
offer fixed (cable or DSL) serv-
ice to most of the city. On the
other hand, smaller local ISPs
such as OregonFAST.net and
Siuslaw Broadband provide a
combination of fixed wireless
and fiber optics to the greater
Florence area.
Florence’s biggest internet
providers, CenturyLink and
Spectrum, have downplayed
concerns prior to Thursday’s
FCC vote.
John Jones, CenturyLink’s
Senior Vice President of Public
Policy
and
Government
Relations, on July 12 blogged
his support of keeping the inter-
net “open and free — without
regulation.”
Jones welcomes the roll back,
arguing that a less regulated
market will bring more compa-
nies and thus more consumer
choice. A heavily regulated mar-
ket, he says, stymies infrastruc-
ture investment, particularly in
rural communities.
“I don’t buy any of that,” said
Rogato.
His business has invested
heavily into expanding and
upgrading his own infrastructure
of hundreds of access points in
Florence.
“It is painful for little compa-
nies. But these large companies
— their profits are in the bil-
lions. They’ve got the money,”
he said.
Rogato added that the tech-
nology and its affordability are
only getting better.
“The price of equipment is
going down, down, down and
the capacity is going up, up, up,”
he said.
Siuslaw Broadband, too, has
infrastructure
pursuits
in
Florence, including gigabit fiber.
Wright takes CenturyLink’s
point.
“There is truth to both sides of
this, unfortunately,” he said.
“More regulations by nature
decrease innovative spending.
The harder it is to perform a task
due to excessive regulations, the
less likely any person or compa-
ny will do it.”
For Charter Spectrum’s part,
the company has had a well-dis-
posed relationship with its net
neutrality commitments in the
past, even as CEO Tom Rutledge
in an April press release
embraced the FCC rollback as “a
welcome and necessary step”
toward change.
In 2016, Charter voluntarily
committed to a generous list of
net neutrality principles as a con-
dition of its acquisition of Time
Warner Cable. Time Warner
Cable itself, however, is current-
ly being sued by New York’s
Attorney
General
Eric
Schneiderman on grounds that it
throttled its customers’ access to
Netflix. Though the alleged mis-
behavior occurred before the
merger, Charter remains bound
to the legal scandal. In addition,
Charter’s merger-based commit-
ment to net neutrality has a 3-
year expiration date, leaving
only speculation as to what
approach it will take when that
commitment expires in 2019 —
or what effect Thursday’s repeal
may have in the near future.
Florence’s
local
ISPs,
OregonFAST.net and Siuslaw
Broadband, have the good for-
tune of not being embroiled in
the drama of national players
and can watch the debate unfold
from relatively unaffected side-
lines.
Wright feels community con-
nections are part of the small-
town advantage.
“Our staff has kids in the
school district, coaches local
sports teams, goes to your
church and shops at the same
grocery store,” he said.
One clear challenge to smaller
ISPs, though, is eating the cost
of bandwidth-hungry content
providers. Year upon year,
streaming sites especially have
contributed to a perpetually ris-
ing bandwidth requirement; and
the effort by internet providers to
upgrade networks has been cost-
ly.
“It has cost us money and we
think the content providers
should’ve contributed toward
that in some way,” said Rogato.
9 A
“But on the other hand, the other
argument is, well … let’s say
they have to pay us $1 per user
per month. The customer would
have to pay that.”
Net neutrality advocates argue
that defining ISPs as common
carriers does away with that
problem, but Rogato doesn’t
believe it’s useful to think of the
internet “… like streets and
highways, owned by the public.
There needs to be competition
because streets don’t change, but
the internet does,” he said. “One
of the misconceptions they keep
saying is that ISPs are going to
slow down your traffic, but we
don’t mess with anybody’s stuff.
We’re the little guys. … That
stuff doesn’t hit home to us.
“The only time I would go in
and limit someone’s bandwidth
is if they get some kind of virus
there,” Rogato added.
Fears that internet providers
are looking to create a tiered sys-
tem are also unfounded, accord-
ing to Rogato.
“They’re making a big deal
about it,” he said. “It’s all some-
thing that comes from a misun-
derstanding.”
If one company behaves badly
toward its customers, Rogato
believes people will switch to
another.
“The free, open market
always repairs itself. I believe
that. It really does,” he said.
Wright acknowledges there
are some valid concerns about a
tiered internet.
“The manner in which it has
been discussed is flawed,” he
said. “The internet is a ‘network
of networks.’ We own our net-
work. We can connect it to
whomever I want. I’m selling an
internet service, though, so if I
wasn’t connected to the entire
internet, I would have lots of
unhappy customers.”
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