Connecticut Senate Majority Leader Bob Duff plans to introduce a bill in next year”™s General Assembly session to address potential changes brought about by the Federal Communications Commission”™s rollback of the 2015 net neutrality rules.
Duff, a Democrat representing Norwalk and Darien, said that his legislation will “hold companies to their commitments not to block websites, throttle speeds, or impose prioritization pricing and to establish a process for internet service providers to certify that they will not engage in practices inconsistent with net neutrality principles.”
He also seeks to amend Connecticut”™s consumer protection laws to include the principles of net neutrality.
Duff acknowledged that while net neutrality is a federal issue, his bill would seek to mitigate the potential consequences of the FCC”™s policy shift at a state level.
“Small businesses and consumers will be the biggest losers as a result of the FCC”™s damaging discarding of net neutrality rules,” Duff said. “You don”™t need to be a psychic to predict that the cable giants will raise rates, block content and potentially slow down services for residents across Connecticut.”
Really? What a waste of time and effort. Free markets have always proved more beneficial than government regulated industry. Grandstanding at the highest level. Find something more impactful and important for the constituents you represent. We have had no govt interference since the advent of the internet which promoted service and availability and innovation that benefited all users. It wasn’t until the Obama administration wanted to do what he did best and inject a wasted layer of regulation on another industry that the notion (misconception) of Net Neutrality surfaced and became more a political football than any benefit to consumers.
Jeff, do some actual research on why net neutrality is needed before you spout off your uneducated opinion. Thanks for playing!
Comcast has extorted Netflix for money, triple dipping to line their pockets. (Money from Netflix for connection, money from consumer, then money from extortion).
https://technical.ly/philly/2014/05/09/graph-shows-netflix-speeds-changed-comcast-deal-comcast-roundup/
If you want Comcast and other ISPs to sell internet ‘packages’ like they sell cable packages, then removing net neutrality is what you want. Without NN, our internet would look something like the title picture on this page:
https://theamericangenius.com/tech-news/net-neutrality-dies-week-get-ready-pay-read-emails-stream-movies/
Considering 87% of the US wants Net Neutrality, I think that it is not a waste of time, since we do consider it important.
Shut the hell up you stupid shill!!! It’s uninformed idiots like you that get us into this mess. US ISPs have had zero net neutrality regulation for 20+ years and they didn’t innovate at all. We pay some of the highest internet fees for the lowest speeds in the world. Obama asked his FCC to regulate because Comcast got caught talking about blocking and throttling certain websites that they could then replace with their own.
Get a clue about technology before you weigh in on issues that are far above your pay grade.
@jeff Cohan Your broad generalizations about the free market fail to mention how service availability and innovation are completely stagnant in a monopoly. Unlike many other industries, for many of us there is not simply the option to switch to a competitor. While you may not personally be affected, realize that many of us are subject to the whims of our ISP, and deserve a basic consumer protection.
Furthermore, it seems increasingly frustrating how conservatives have managed to turn this into a partisan issue and blame “regulation” when the purpose of classifying internet services as Title II was to ensure that consumer’s access to the internet was not infringed upon. An ISP does not provide content: I don’t sign on to my computer to see what Verizon is up to. I’m not subscribed to Comcast because of all of the content it provides. An ISP is a common carrier, it should not decide what i can access and what I cannot, just like my Natural Gas provider who controls the gas line to my house doesn’t decide when I am allowed to use it.
Net Neutrality is not a stranglehold on business innovation, it is a concept that the internet was based on, that all data is treated equally. ISP’s are meant to provide a necessary service: Unfiltered, unrestricted access to all of the internet. This is a concept that should be understood by everyone, but once ISP’s understood that they could make more money by charging higher premiums for access to certain sites, is when it became necessary to prevent that from happening.
The next time you feel that the free market is better than any government relegated industry, remember that your homes heating, water and electricity, the roads you drive on, the safety standard of your food, consumer goods and cars, your police and fire department and military are not there because of a free market, but because someone decided the government should do what i can to protect its people.