ISPs controlling the Internet

[InsanityRequiem]

A little background about this. Currently in the USA, two of the topmost ISP providers are trying to merge (Time Warner Cable and Comcast) and other ISPs are trying to make net neutrality a thing of the past. If TWC and CC merge, that creates even less competition for good ISP service in the USA, and the issue of net neutrality would give the ISPs the ability to throttle customers and charge websites for better connect speeds.

The issues that can come with this is that if these happen, the USA's internet infrastructure could face serious negative effects that can set gaming back to before the 360/PS3/Wii generation of consoles. Why do I say this? Less competition amongst the dwindling ISP providers means less challenge to offer good services, and throttling both customers and websites also would give ISPs the ability to throttle gaming companies' servers too. Both of those would make many of our current ways of gaming (Online buying and downloading, multiplayer gaming and communication mostly) extremely difficult to do.

If the merger and net neutrality issues do come to pass, what would we do to make sure that gaming is not damaged from the fallout? Or if the big gaming companies are charged, what will happen? I for one would not be able to afford gaming if I have to pay extra for online services again (I stopped Xbox Live because of monetary issues), which would limit me to single player games again. And forget about downloading games from online if it takes more than 8 hours.

Just curious about the rest of the world, even though this would be mainly a USA issue.

 

[Foolery]

All I can say is, welcome to a taste of Canada. That's basically the way it is over here. The 3 major telecom providers (Bell, Telus, Rogers) all collude to keep rates high, enforce arbitrary data caps, and choke out potential competition. It's fucking irritating.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I don't think it'll happen. Why? Two words: Google Fiber.

Basically, google fiber exists for only one reason, to force other ISPs to up their game and start providing better service. While it's not prevalent across the country right now, nor will it be for quite a while, in the cities that google fiber is being rolled out other ISPs have started offering much better service to their customers because of the competition.

Take Austin TX for example. Google recently started installing google fiber into people's homes there, and in response AT&T started offering 300 mbps fiber internet connections. The further google fiber spreads the more ISPs will have to compete with it and the better service they'll be forced to offer. Internet is one of those things that people are willing to pay a premium for if it's good.

 

[Ed130 The Vanguard]

In New Zealand one government had the bright idea of selling the national telco as one massive unit, effectively creating a monopoly.

It took a another governments mandate and the split of Telecom into separate companies for retail, infrastructure etc before things started looking up.