The real looming threat to net neutrality

[Lissa]

Kandrathe, this is quite literally what I said would happen in the other thread that I started. I said that under this Trump administration, this [selling your personal info to the highest bidder] was clearly and obviously just a tip of the iceberg in a larger agenda to do exactly what this article is stating. As I also said in the other thread, it's only a matter of time before mom-and-pop internet sites are all but inaccessible either because they didn't pay 'X' isp x$ to show their site, or the speeds at which their site is accessible is so painfully slow, you'd be better off using a 56k modem. In short, giant media conglomerates win and Trump and crew profit. The writing was already on the wall here...

More simply put, compared to Europe and Asia, the internet in the US sucks. The current FCC boss thinks that's because treating the Internet like a common utility has sucked all the life and innovation out of it.

How does our internet in the US remain fast & cheap? We need more options in more markets to add competition, OR, nationalize the whole thing and treat it as a interstate freeway where Congress decides how many lanes, and the speed limit. But, before you go and think nationalizing is so great, remember it's the big states who have all the representation. Remote places like Wyoming and Idaho will be left behind, unless someone funds somebody's pork project. In my state, there is always a battle between the cities, and the rural over resources.

To be blunt, trying to get more infrastructure for the internet has been tried and failed because of corporate greed. The government has given money to Verizon, AT&T, Cox, Comcast, and TWC to improve their infrastructure to increase speeds for their consumers and every one of them didn't spend said money on infrastructure, they just banked it. The internet backbone companies (those listed above) have forgotten the old adage, "you have to spend money to make money," and are so afraid to spend the money because their shareholders don't want to realize the money down the road, but want it now. So, there's your big reason for why the internet in the US basically sucks, the greed involved in the corporations isn't allowing for increases in the infrastructure to improve the internet.