re: FCC plans to vote to overturn U.S. net neutrality rules in December

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This is an anti-trust issue, not a net neutrality issue.

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Would companies like Comcast which are involved in both providing and content distribution run afoul of anti-trust rules, as they currently are?

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Dude a single LTE connection is not going to function for a household of internet users any where close to a wired broadband connection

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It depends on the wired connection now doesn't it?

But lets get to the gist of your argument: If you can't simultaneously stream 4k content then the ISP isn't a "viable alternative."

Look, I'm open to the argument that ISPs are utilities. But solely from the communication aspect in terms of messaging, email, news, etc. All of which you can easily do with wireless providers.

Simultaneously 4K streams? That's not a utility. That's entertainment.

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Sounds like the issue is not enough competition, then. How about we address the barriers to entry into this market so that we can have more competition?

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That would be wonderful. We should also have rules that ensure that ISP's treat everyone equally. They shouldn't be allowed to direct you to certain chosen sites or deny you from others unless you pay more. The reason the internet is useful is because it DOESN'T do that.

The problem is that we have increasing consolidation in all entertainment, communication, and information companies. Seriously, add up the parent companies of the largest (i.e. dominate 90% of the marketplace) wireless carriers, ISPs, record labels, tv networks, newspapers, search engines, radio stations, movie studios, etc. It's not even a dozen companies in total. They don't compete. They collude. They simply split the pie and dominate all forms of communication.

We can't suddenly switch to a free market now when the big boys already have all of the power needed to crush any competition. The key is to lower barriers to entry while ensuring the big boys play by a set of rules that protects both those browsing the internet and those who put content on the internet.

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another clueless baby boomer

like white on rice

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Not a baby boomer. But I've been working in telecommunications for 12 years now, even though I'm mostly cybersecurity now.

I understand the industry, and understand why the big content providers are pushing net neutrality so hard.

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then what are you left with? Comcast-preferred content

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Yep.

That's what makes our current internet awesome. Too bad others want to shut that down. They'd rather have less options.

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We should also have rules that ensure that ISP's treat everyone equally. They shouldn't be allowed to direct you to certain chosen sites or deny you from others unless you pay more. The reason the internet is useful is because it DOESN'T do that.

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No one has addressed this in this thread, and I've brought it up multiple times.

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The problem is that we have increasing consolidation in all entertainment, communication, and information companies. Seriously, add up the parent companies of the largest (i.e. dominate 90% of the marketplace) wireless carriers, ISPs, record labels, tv networks, newspapers, search engines, radio stations, movie studios, etc. It's not even a dozen companies in total. They don't compete. They collude. They simply split the pie and dominate all forms of communication.

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Completely right.

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We can't suddenly switch to a free market now when the big boys already have all of the power needed to crush any competition. The key is to lower barriers to entry while ensuring the big boys play by a set of rules that protects both those browsing the internet and those who put content on the internet.

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Spot on.

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They'd rather have less options.

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"nonsense, you can just move to another city if you want your options!!!!"

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Move someplace that has more options.

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We should also have rules that ensure that ISP's treat everyone equally. They shouldn't be allowed to direct you to certain chosen sites or deny you from others unless you pay more.

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If they own the pipe, why can't they decide what content goes through that pipe, how fast, and to who? You're using their service yet you want to force them to provide that service in a way that you want. That's not how this works.

If you encourage competition, you'll naturally remove behavior that consumers don't like because they will gladly give their money to a competitor that gives them what they want.

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The reason the internet is useful is because it DOESN'T do that.

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The internet is useful for a lot of reasons. Not everyone uses the internet the same way.

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The problem is that we have increasing consolidation in all entertainment, communication, and information companies. Seriously, add up the parent companies of the largest (i.e. dominate 90% of the marketplace) wireless carriers, ISPs, record labels, tv networks, newspapers, search engines, radio stations, movie studios, etc. It's not even a dozen companies in total. They don't compete. They collude. They simply split the pie and dominate all forms of communication.

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If these companies are colluding or creating a monopoly, as another poster said, that gets into anti-trust issues. Net neutrality won't solve that; it will make it worse.

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We can't suddenly switch to a free market now when the big boys already have all of the power needed to crush any competition. The key is to lower barriers to entry while ensuring the big boys play by a set of rules that protects both those browsing the internet and those who put content on the internet.

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There are a few different ways to address this issue. Removing control over products and services from the businesses that own them is not the way to go.

Removing barriers to entry into the market is the way to go. Go talk to local municipalities that are working exclusively with one company for those rights (to set up infrastructure), for instance. In these matters, it's usually government that is the problem, not the solution.