We’ve noted several times how European telecom giants have somehow convinced European policymakers that technology giants like Netflix and Google should annually give them billions of dollars… for no coherent reason. The proposal is dressed up to sound like a sensible adult policy aimed at shoring up broadband access to the downtrodden. In reality it’s net…

  • deejay4am@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Um, excuse me? So is my internet going to become free then?

    What the fuck are we paying ISPs for if they just want money from the sites we connect with? The whole point of the internet is to connect sites (whether you are consuming a video on Netflix or two banks connect their networks via a secure VPN) and ISPs are the last mile to customers.

    We already saw during COVID that there are really zero bandwidth problems. Fuck your double-dipping.

    I’m really sick of all the artificial scarcity that tech bros try to invent.

    • Chocrates@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s capitalism. In this day and age bandwidth needs to be a utility, but as long as it is treated as a consumer good we are gonna get gouged. Next year spectrum is allowed to set data caps so any of you living without a care are gonna get a slap in the face for no reason.

      • nichos@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s not at all capitalism. ISPs are a regulated monopoly. If it were capitalism there’d be a choice.

        Try starting your own ISP, the government in your towb wont let you. At most this is crony capitalism.

  • dephyre@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This is like the power companies charging dryer or oven manufacturers more because "they’re not paying for critical infrastructure".

  • DumpyPuppy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    After Covid, I just don’t get how a. lawmakers haven’t picked up on the fact that ISPs are all monopolistic pieces of shit, b. the internet is essential to modern life, and c. in order to give internet to all americans, you gotta get rid of the ISPs.

    in the IRA and countless other bills you see billions in funding for ISPs to lay out high speed internet in new areas. It hasn’t worked before, why would it work now? Go to the root of the problem, disregard the lobbyists.