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ISPs say US should force Big Tech firms to pay for broadband construction (arstechnica.com)

submitted 1 year ago by BrikoX@vlemmy.net to c/news

53 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://vlemmy.net/post/152995

Alternative published title: AT&T/Verizon lobby group pushes for payments from Big Tech

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[–] Vinegar@kbin.social 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I expect to see further erosion of Net Neutrality if big tech firms are required to pay for internet infrastructure. I have no love for big tech, but if they are required to pay for infrastructure, then how long until smaller companies and hosts are required to pay? The Biden administration seems to agree: "[it] is difficult to understand how a system of mandatory payments imposed on only a subset of content providers could be enforced without undermining net neutrality." I have no love for ISPs either - ISPs should be run as public utilities, not as for-profit private corporate conglomerates.

As others have already pointed out the US government (and Comcast, Verizon, & Century Link customers) have been defrauded by the major telecom companies for nearly 30 years worth at least $400 billion dollars (data from 2014, the current total is likely over $700 billion). They've been pocketing obscene amounts of money instead of investing in infrastructure for decades, at this point additional infrastructure should be publicly funded, owned & operated and the telecommunications companies should be forced to sell the internet infrastructure to local public utilities.

The Irregulators are a group of experts who have been fighting this fraud since 1999, and they have a couple books about this:

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