Good on ya, FCC!

Amazingly, nay, near-miraculously, the FCC actually followed through and regulated Internet access today.  Of course, I've still got an element of "be careful what you wish for, 'cause you just might get it" lurking in the back of my mind, but I'm just pleased that, for once, on one major issue, the will of the people (in the form of over 4 million comments to the FCC) actually won out over corporate lobbying and greed.  Given the response so far from the ISPs and their congressional mouthpieces, I can't help but think there will be more good than harm from this... where I hear complaints about how this will limit investment and reduce innovation on the ISPs part, I can't help but hear "we had some good scams planned, and you're getting in the way!"

Of course, now we're almost certainly in for another round of legal wrangling, especially since the legislative option is effectively locked up for a couple of years (thanks, Obama!), but it sure feels nice to have this moment, at least, where options exist, should Comcast misbehave sufficiently, other than getting inferior service through my phone company's craptastic DSL.

FCC *finally* stepping up on Net Neutrality?

I've been keeping tabs on the whole Net Neutrality struggle since at least mid-2008, and, frankly, had all but lost hope that anything "good" would come of it for Internet users, what with all the political bickering, corporate payoffs-in-all-but-name, and the like.  Amazingly though, it looks like the comments of a few million US citizens may have outweighed business-as-usual and corporate greed, unless it was the "you can't touch us" attitude of Verizon in past lawsuits that tipped the scale... either way, the Chairman of the FCC is bringing up a proposal for a vote shortly, which reclassifies Internet access as a utility, giving the FCC the opportunity to enforce Net Neutrality the way it's been since the Internet started, rather than how some large Internet providers want to re-define things for their convenience/profit.

Of course, as always, the devil's in the details, and there's no guarantee that something amenable to a majority of the commissioners will actually make it through a vote (there's a lot of time left for money/favors to come into play)... but I honestly never thought I would see even this much, from an FCC headed by a former industry insider.  Color me hopeful... and we'll see what the final vote brings.