The telecom industry seems to be remarkably unconcerned with “investing in telecommunication infrastructure” so I don’t really see how regulating them so they are less able to take advantage of their near monopoly will do any harm.\u00a0 Where I live, right in the middle of downtown Omaha, I have exactly one choice if I want high speed internet, advertised to me with the term “up to 100mbps” and I am luck most days to receive 20 mbps.\u00a0 In fact, I don’t think I have, even once in two years as their customer seen 100mbps, even when I was paying for 150.\u00a0 That’s it. I choose Cox, or I don’t get high speed internet.<\/p>\n
Combine that with Time Warner and Comcast bringing lawsuits against cities that wish to build their own fiber network that provide reliable gigabit speeds for the same price I’m paying for 20 mbps because its “anti-competitive” and I have remarkably little concern for how these multi-billion dollar industries are burdened by regulation.\u00a0 I’m a web developer, so my livelihood is closely related to the well being of the internet.\u00a0 Not only do I develop web sites for the University of Nebraska, but I also am trying to get a web page of my own off the ground.\u00a0 Seeing the telecom industry actively avoiding investing in infrastructure, and then attempting to keep others from doing so all while saying they should be protected from regulation so they can invest in infrastructure is infuriating.<\/p>\n
We know the amount of money that the telecoms spend in Washington every year, and we see bills like this one keep coming up, with protections and considerations for the telecoms, but not for anyone else.\u00a0 It may not be you, Representative, but its the system and I’m tired of it.\u00a0 The massive profits of corporations like Time Warner and Comcast do not need your protection, we your constituents do.\u00a0 We don’t need to avoid regulating the telecoms, we need to place incentives to drive competition.\u00a0 I need two more (minimum) options to get high-speed internet where I live.\u00a0 That, and only that, will encourage Cox, Time Warner and the other service providers to bring new technology like fiber to Nebraska at an affordable price…or at least get them to stop lying to me about the service they provide for the ridiculous price they charge me for it.\u00a0 Don’t keep the telecoms in mind when you’re voting, keep me in mind, because you’re representing me, not the telecoms.<\/p>\n
-Seth Swanson<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Like I said…he’ll probably never read a word of it. \u00a0But just maybe he will, and maybe … Nah. \u00a0It’ll be ignored because, really, do I have millions of dollars and thus any influence at all? \u00a0Nope. \u00a0Oh well, on with the day.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Recently, I poked all the state representatives and senators about upcoming Net Neutrality legistlation that the telecoms have snuck into next year’s, must pass, funding bill. \u00a0And Ashford send me a response. \u00a0I know, it’s a form letter, but the return address seemed legit. \u00a0He may never actually read my thoughts on his response, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,5],"tags":[61,67,70],"class_list":["post-2502","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-net-neutrality","category-rant","tag-net-neutrality","tag-politics","tag-rant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sswanson-001-site2.gtempurl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2502","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sswanson-001-site2.gtempurl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sswanson-001-site2.gtempurl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sswanson-001-site2.gtempurl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sswanson-001-site2.gtempurl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2502"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sswanson-001-site2.gtempurl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2502\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sswanson-001-site2.gtempurl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2502"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sswanson-001-site2.gtempurl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2502"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sswanson-001-site2.gtempurl.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2502"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}