FCC docket draws anger at ISPs and mockery of Republican’s data/coffee analogy.
Any attempt to limit or ban data caps will draw strong opposition from FCC Republicans and Internet providers. Republican FCC Commissioner Nathan Simington last week argued that regulating data caps would be akin to mandating free coffee refills:
Suppose we were a different FCC, the Federal Coffee Commission, and rather than regulating the price of coffee (which we have vowed not to do), we instead implement a regulation whereby consumers are entitled to free refills on their coffees. What effects might follow? Well, I predict three things could happen: either cafés stop serving small coffees, or cafés charge a lot more for small coffees, or cafés charge a little more for all coffees.
You used to see a lot of bad analogies when people didn’t understand computers or the Internet. Are we still in that age? The Internet is a series of tubes?
JoMiran@lemmy.ml 5 weeks ago
Except that in markets with a single provider they use data caps a s a way to charge more for the same service. In Austin I had a choice between multiple providers and ended up paying $50/month for uncapped bidirectional 500mbps service. In Wyoming, the same service costs $349 because there is only one provider.