Comcast Pushes Net Neutrality "Compromise" That Isn't Comcast and other large ISPs have spent countless millions of dollars trying to kill both broadband privacy rules and net neutrality protections. Now, after spending years lobbying to gut all meaningful oversight of one of the least-liked and least competitive business sectors in America, they're busy trying to convince everyone who'll listen that they won't take full, brutal advantage of the one/two punch of limited competition and no real oversight.

With net neutrality rules on the chopping block, Comcast's top lobbyist David Cohen is really excited about the chance to engage in "paid prioritization," or the act of letting one company pay an ISP for a competitive advantage over another. Such pay-to-play schemes are banned outright under the FCC's 2015 net neutrality rules, since they'd obviously distort the market and allow a deep-pocketed company (say, NBC Comcast Universal) a major advantage over startups, smaller competitors, non-profits or educational institutions. And while Comcast used to insist that the company would never engage in such anti-competitive deals, the company's website has slowly but surely been deleting those promises as a neutrality repeal edges closer. Cohen, who calls himself Comcast's "Chief Diversity Officer" to help skirt federal lobbying rules, has been making the rounds trying to soften opposition to such arrangements. Speaking at an ISP-backed "think tank" event this week in DC, Cohen tried to suggest that government regulatory bans on such deals could prevent ISPs from offering compelling services. "...Something might come along that is not anticompetitive, that is pro-consumer, and that is a specialized service not available to every user of the internet that would be in the public interest," Cohen argued. But the FCC's 2015 rules, which Cohen's company has spent millions of dollars attempting to kill, always carved out vast exceptions to legitimate prioritization of services like VoIP or medical care. ISP lobbyists have long tried to suggest that net neutrality harms the sick and disabled by blocking their access to such offerings, which has never been remotely true. "If rational people will sit down and talk about this, they can even resolve what has become a third rail around bipartisan network neutrality legislation," Cohen stated, implying that those worried about the negative impact of such deals aren't rational. The reality is, the FCC's 2015 ban on paid prioritization (like most of the net neutrality rules) only really impacts an ISP if they're engaging in anti-competitive behavior, a point some industry CEOs (like Sonic CEO The reality is, the FCC's 2015 ban on paid prioritization (like most of the net neutrality rules) only really impacts an ISP if they're, a point some industry CEOs (like Sonic CEO Dane Jasper ) have been making for years. And if Comcast really wanted to "help," they'd stop trying to destroy popular and already established federal consumer protections, and shift that money, time and energy toward better products, policies and customer service.







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Most recommended from 45 comments

kinda pissed

join:2012-06-06

Newsoms, VA 32 recommendations kinda pissed Member So basically They want us to believe that they spent all that time and money killing regulations just so that they can not take advantage of their new found freedom.

maartena

Elmo

Premium Member

join:2002-05-10

Orange, CA 8 recommendations maartena Premium Member Elect a Democrat OR a Smart Republican This will continue to be a problem until the top levels of our government support net neutrality. Net Neutrality would be certain to be re-introduced if the next President is a democrat, but a SMART Republican (one that actually has a brain) will also do the job. As long as Trump is president however, we can only hope that the individual states' net neutrality laws will hold..... and that the FCC council starts seeing the light.

battleop

join:2005-09-28

00000 4 recommendations battleop Member Stop supporting these tools.... If you keep spending money with them then they will take that as a thumbs up. I know not everyone can avoid them in a residential setting but just about everyone can in their business. If you are lucky and have a chance to do business with someone local then do it even if you have to sacrifice a little speed in the process.



Mega huge companies only react to their bottom line. If you bitch while continuing to send them money they won't listen. Money is the only thing they listen do.



Buy Local and stop supporting the Multi Billion Dollar Club in everything you do.