anything goes Friday although first I
wanna get cranky ran in here and talk
%uh what's going on with this whole I
actually is two pieces to this number
one the the comcast's
Time Warner Cable merger and number to
the the this
the net neutrality well actually three
pieces I guess the FCC saying that
they're gonna rewrite the net neutrality
rules
I have CC headed up by mister Thomas
wheeler
a foreign partner core Capital Partners
and
the eg goes through I I actually got an
entire each year
have all the company's this guy's been
on the Board over has lobbied for
in the nineteen million bucks he made
doing it before he became the head of
the FCC which is rather mindboggling
Craig here in the CEO and president of
repressed repressed at netCracker
welcome the bottom back to the program
thanks army-backed always a pleasure
soul are a calm K
Netflix is saying that they're seen a I
guess a 14 percent over last 30 days
decrease in their throughput speed to
their customers 10
want people who works here on this
program has Verizon by our side helm
and it has just in the last 30 days this
is the super expensive super high-speed
you know 100 map service it has gotten
so bad that
prizes that Netflix shows are stuttering
now for this person arm I'm I've noticed
last month on
two different ISP's on consumer espy's
that I have at home
that now when I try to stick stream or
get large quantities content things are
slowing down
and when I go to a VPN that they're
actually shutting me down
what the hell's going on out there on
the internet well there's alotta shady
activity going
I on deep in the Internet infrastructure
in place is it's very hard for the
average consumer dis see
and since these companies very often
won't talk about what's going on we
don't know exactly what's going on but
it seems pretty clear that's what what's
happening is at the level what's what's
been noted clearing
so this is the backbone of the Internet
where big pipes from the company that
carry traffic for companies like Netflix
or Amazon
meet up with the big pipes that take all
that traffic to your home from places
like Verizon and Comcast
and increasingly I indications are a lot
of this is buried in these
non-disclosure engineering agreements
but the indications are
that the the cable companies and phone
companies like Verizon that offer
television product or
really trying to get these other
companies to pay them more
the to carry their traffic
and when they won't do it they're not
opening up as much space to not opening
up the ports in the Internet
you know it sorta like if you are you're
going to Costco the pager 50 bucks to
get your
Costco card in you expected to be able
to buy I don't know a bushel of apples
and they said oh sorry we don't have
apples anymore they wouldn't fit into
our loading dock
I certificates or imagine that scenario
that kinda what's happening on the
internet
and of course the important thing to
remember here is you as an Internet
customer for a while these companies
like Comcast arris in already paying
you're already paying them you're 80 90
100 dollars a month because you want to
watch Netflix because you want to watch
these these other services because you
wanna do it run your business
I and it should be a situation where
they can double-dip
and charged twice they don't actually
have a capacity problem
they're just trying to exploit their
role as gatekeepers to make even more
money
right i'm waiting for the other shoe to
drop
which is where they come to me and they
say all I E you know you've got a basic
eighty dollar-a-month plan
if you wanna watch streaming video
that's extra ten dollars a month if you
wanna
if you want to watch a porn site that
sector twenty dollars a month
if you are out with you know it will
visit the news sites over at the new
york times are
financial times are having impose as
extra five dollars a month if you want
you know I'm
MBA the menu like they have on their
cable systems
well that's just sit on that some of
that same ol that's their vision for the
future the internet that never went to
the way the internet has worked
that's not what as maybe internet you
know such an unrivalled place for free
speech in democratic participation and
economic innovation
but if you're a cable company that's a
model you're very
very familiar with you like an internet
where you get to pick and choose
the channels for people where you get to
decide which
sites and services get the fastest speed
which are slow down
which work in which downloaded all that
is a model they like
I so here we have the president and
chief executive officer of cellular
telecommunications and
out that have the cell cellular
telecommunications
and internet Association ctia from 1992
to 2004
%uh this guy was the the the president
and CEO of the trade industry group that
was representing
these ISP's in and one he is now the
head of the FCC Tom wheeler
arm to have something to do with the
fact that with with the reason why the
FCC wants simply declare
that I S p's are common carriers like
phone companies are are
you know I guess it's somewhat too early
to judge but i i think you certainly can
draw the connection
you know Tom wheeler before he was the
head of the cell phone industry lobbying
the several decades ago he was that the
cable industry lobby so this is a guy
who goes way back
in that regard I but I I think it you
know maybe a little more complicated
than that any in the problems run even
deeper than Tom wheeler
I in the really the whole way that
Washington
make media and telecom policy and they
are bereft
and what I would call it can to do
attitude when it comes to doing things
that millions and millions of Americans
a vast majority of Americans
wanna see happening just wanna be
protected they just wanna go online and
have choices
and yet washington has become paralyzed
because above
lobbying influence industry the time
we're used to be part of from
taking any of the steps and they are you
all at FCC almost afraid of their own
shadow I mean they took a
big loss in court a couple weeks ago
they're trying to pretend it was
actually a victory they're trying to
piece together
to shreds authority that was left to
them in this decision
instead of actually taking the kinda
decisive action
that we need to see if the FCC so they
have basically kicked the can down the
road again
and even though so many americans
millions and millions have been
demanding net neutrality demanding they
protect the free and open Internet
they continue to take a very circuitous
work
route very week a demonstration of their
power in the company's
baby they smell the fear and so they're
being very aggressive in what they're
doing trying to keep the FCC
from doing what most of us need them to
do which is actually look out for us
actually protect us online
from the abuse are these big
corporations to the fight is far from
over
but it was certainly discouraging to see
the FCC
instead of moving to do what we talkin
to do which is reclassify broadband
under the law
treated as a what it obviously is a
telecommunications and transmission
serviced
I everybody understands that's what it
is and that it needs to be treated
differently from web sites
but again they prepare for their
studying at they're doing is extended
process
and unfortunately that's that's
certainly not good news for the future
of the Internet
well as comes back to power our big
money in Washington DC which gets us
back to the Supreme Court discovering
and they've been the buckley case that
the first amendment protects money
and that corporations are project and
then in the in the First National Bank
versus blotted his two years later
discovering that
at the that route the Fourteenth
Amendment protects corporations and then
bringing all that together course in
Citizens United
its this is craziness and I think it
plays out in the media telecom world in
with the people you know people think
about oil companies and tobacco
companies but what these guys in there
cable and phone world spend as much as
any those cats when it comes to
influence in Washington and the
revolving door
spins nowhere quite like it does at the
FCC where you've got you know the
current chairman of the FCC
used to be the top cable obvious the top
cable obvious used to be chairman of the
FCC
I and that's what we're going up against
every day right right Michael Paul
right right yeah son and grandson colin
powell used to have the SEC now is the
head key is that cable obviously it's
not
it should be illegal it she is should be
a crime
but it's not so Craig we have a minute
left
what do we do the SEC's not elected how
do we how to influence them
well we had organized Tom we've seen it
again again again to get the fight
against oprah pepper
even making that neutrality an issue to
push back against unchecked by in
surveillance when millions and millions
of Americans get together
when they put pressure on an agency like
the SEC that is not used to being in the
public eye
they can get good results and we can
still have that happen here
but it's going to take some
unprecedented organizing involvement
pressure on capitol hill maybe direct
action around the SEC it in organizing
promise a political problem
we have to treat it like that and you
know we have to rate self yep and you
guys are right at the center then people
can
can participate in that by going to free
press
dotnet repressed at net figure in the
presidency of repressed
I could keep up the great work my friend
think I'm always appreciate the
opportunity
my pleasure they've had slowly backed
anything goes Friday
the for the person things that are with
talking about
how their gold that certainly 10
will but will be back to your phone
calls and whatever topic you'd like
well I've got a few others
this is the Thom Hartmann program
this revolving door in washington seen
some and
you know another another thing to put on
list when you contact a member of
congress you show but I'm home
