It’s The End Of The Web As We Know It…(And) I Feel Fine.

During a speech about the economy, then President Obama said (with a straight face, shows he is an accomplished sociopath) “When it comes to regulation, we prefer a light hand.” Ranks up there with, “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor…” 

In the latter part of the Obama years, he inflicted upon one of the most active parts of the economy, the Internet, Net Neutrality. Supposedly it would ensure all users get equal access to the Web, without throttling, blocking, etc. for their points of view. That’s not how it worked out. 

 

On June 11, 2018, the new FCC Chairman under then President Trump announced the end of Net Neutrality. And the usual suspects screeched the “wild wild web” with unlimited free expression was over, people (primarily leftists) would not be able to get viewpoints out or sell items on the market. 

 

As usual, their disastrous predictions didn’t come to fold. 

The Death of the Internet, Five Years Later

Ajit PaiJune 11, 2023 

…In January 2017, times changed with the new Trump administration. The new president designated me chairman of the FCC shortly after Inauguration Day. In May of that year, we proposed to repeal these regulations. In December, we voted to do so. And on June 11, 2018 — five years ago today — that repeal took effect.

Going only on press coverage, social media, and political rhetoric, you would have been justified in preparing for civilization’s demise.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.) proclaimed, as did “news” outlet CNN, that this was “the end of the Internet as we know it.” Not to be outdone, a columnist at the New York Times moaned that “the freewheeling internet has been dying a slow death,” and that repealing net neutrality rules “would be the final pillow in its face.” The Senate Democratic Caucus’s Twitter account proclaimed, “If we don’t save net neutrality, you’ll get the internet one word at a time” — putting each word on a separate line to emphasize the danger. Famed telecommunications regulatory experts like anonymous street artist Banksy and Silicon Valley representative Ro Khanna predicted that internet applications would become pay-per-view, with consumers having to pay $1.99 per Google search or to purchase them in packages. And for good measure, multiple U.S. senators called the decision “un-American…”

Read the rest of the article, it’s funny. 

So, what has happened over the last five years. The only person I’ve known kicked off a social media platform is the former president who pushed to remove “Net Neutrality,” Donald Trump. Twitter still hosted the Iranian terrorists in Tehran, and domestic terrorist groups like Black Lives Matter and Antifa. Plus being used by criminals for illegal activities, like flash mobs. So how has the general public fared without “Net Neutrality?” Pretty well all in all. 

“…In an era defined by the paranoid style of American political argument, it may not surprise you to learn that they were not. In fact, they were diametrically wrong. The evidence is indisputable today that in the five years since the FCC’s decision to repeal net-neutrality regulations went into effect, American consumers are benefiting from broadband networks that are stronger and more extensive than ever. According to independent measurement service Ookla, average fixed broadband speeds in the U.S. are 287 percent faster today than they were in June 2018 (269.28 Mbps download speeds today versus 93.98 Mbps in 2018). Average mobile broadband speeds have increased even more, at 570 percent (156.51 Mbps versus 27.47 Mbps). Millions more Americans have access to the internet today compared with 2018, thanks in large part to private investment in digital infrastructure.

And on top of that, consumers are benefiting from more choice than in 2018. Indeed, competition has not just increased but transformed since then. Residential fiber deployment hit an all-time high last year. Wireless companies like T-Mobile are providing high-speed 5G fixed wireless service to millions of customers. Companies like Starlink are launching low-Earth-orbit satellites to support residential-broadband service, especially in harder-to-reach rural areas. And cable companies are expanding their footprint and upgrading their systems to enable much faster speeds.

The contrast between America’s broadband consumers and their European counterparts during the Covid-19 pandemic is telling. Americans with internet access largely were able to rely on broadband networks to do videoconference calls, stream in high-definition, and otherwise stay connected. Abroad, however, a key European commissioner felt compelled to ask streaming services to throttle video content to standard definition. Why? Because he feared that otherwise digital “infrastructures might be in strain.” I’d argue they were “in strain” partly because the European Union has had quite strict net-neutrality regulations that meaningfully undermine the incentive for investment in high-capacity broadband infrastructure. Fortunately, neither I nor any other public official in the United States had to make a similar request, then or since…”

The bureaucracy has no desire for efficiency, and competition will always improve goods and services.  Iron sharpens iron, to use an expression. And this is not the only example of the Federal Communications Commission throttling success and improvement. 

I’m almost 60, and I remember having one phone company for my service, and having to change my phone number when I moved across town. Today many people don’t have home phones, only cell phones, and they take them from one state (or country) to another, keeping the same phone number for decades. But this is a relatively new phenomenon. What took so long? I’ll give you three guesses, but you will need only one. 

For decades the FCC put a stranglehold on use of the digital broadcast band, from not allowing competition in local markets on radio to refusing sales to communications companies for services. If you want an excellent example, many people believe the first mobile phone was used in 1973, a Motorola DynaTAC 8000X in New York City. While it was the first handheld phone, the first cellular phone call was made on June 17, 1946. Granted, it was a car phone that took up half a trunk, it was an analog mobile phone. Just as we were coming out of World War II.

Why did it take ages to get to handheld phones? The FCC would not sell digital bandwidth to this startup company, and it died. There was a similar blocking of the FM (frequency modulation) by the FCC. We could have “FM…for a better sound all around decades before the 70s. 

If you want an excellent review of the FCC and it’s incompetence, read The Political Spectrum: The Tumultuous Liberation of Wireless Technology, from Herbert Hoover to the Smartphone, by Thomas Hazlett (where I got the information on the 1946 phone, among other facts). Goes over one failure after another, and how many politicians bought out the FCC staff to ensure their radio stations, etc. would not face competition. Thankfully the FCC is more business friendly than 100 years ago. And more business means more competition and better goods and services for the consumer.

Why do we have to keep relearning this? As long as the politicians and the bureaucracy control a valuable commodity, it will not be used efficiently. Hopefully we can keep the FCC from screwing up use of the digital spectrum any more.