It's not like this is novel. Every person with any knowledge of the situation (and no financial ties to ISPs) have been calling for the telecommunications services classification for years from the FCC. As I remember it, the FCC neutrality rule strike down would have been totally avoidable if they had set the classification to begin with.
Will Mozilla "officially" proposing this make any real waves? I guess as a large organization, maybe their example will at least open up the door for other companies to join Mozilla's proposal?
Edit: I get the "last mile" distinction in their proposal, but if the entire idea of Internet delivery was classified under common carrier laws, that would cover last-mile.
Edit: I get the "last mile" distinction in their proposal, but if the entire idea of Internet delivery was classified under common carrier laws, that would cover last-mile.
"Common carrier" worked when we had a (true monopoly) telephone system where touchtone was considered a radical, once-in-a-decade technical advancement. What incentive does Comcast have to, say, push standard bandwidth to 100Mbit while being paid regulated, low margin rates as a dumb pipe provider?
Mozilla's proposal is interesting, but I think it's probably too clever by half: Even if the FCC wanted to get into the business of setting "fair" rates for "remote delivery", I think Congress would prefer they didn't, and that matters.
> What incentive does Comcast have to, say, push standard bandwidth to 100Mbit while being paid regulated, low margin rates as a dumb pipe provider?
To be more explicit: Mozilla's proposal solves this. ISPs get to charge whatever prices they want to consumers, which covers the cost of 100mb bandwidth and technological innovation, but to companies they have to act like a dumb pipe and ensure equal access. This means Comcast has an incentive for innovation even in a monopolistic situation—They can charge users more money.
I'm not sure if this would solve the problem with BitTorrent though...
Will Mozilla "officially" proposing this make any real waves? I guess as a large organization, maybe their example will at least open up the door for other companies to join Mozilla's proposal?
Edit: I get the "last mile" distinction in their proposal, but if the entire idea of Internet delivery was classified under common carrier laws, that would cover last-mile.