ART 80F - WEEK 9 LECTURE CONTENT
Net Neutrality - Actions + Alternatives
Potential new "content-branded" isp
If net neutrality is repealed, content providers such as Amazon, Netflix+ Facebook could build + launch their own ISPs
Alternatives to big ISP
2016 Wired article on Guifi.net
The Guifi Foundation isn’t the paid provider of most Internet service to end-user (home and business) customers. That role falls to more than 20 for-profit internet service providers that operate on the overall platform. The ISPs share infrastructure costs according to how much demand they put on the overall system. They pay fees to the foundation for its services — a key source of funding for the overall project. Then they offer various kinds of services to end users, such as installing connections — lately they’ve been install fiber-optic access in some communities — managing traffic flows, offering email, handling customer and technical support, and so on. The prices these ISPs charge are, to this American who’s accustomed to broadband-cartel greed, staggeringly inexpensive: 18 to 35 Euros (currently about $20–$37) a month for gigabit fiber, and much less for slower WiFi. Community ownership and ISP competition does wonders for affordability.
INDIE ISP
Other options for Internet Service Providers:
- Smaller ISP Companies (many still get service from larger ISPs)
- Indie Wireless + Fiber ISPs
Via Popular Mechanics
Popular Mechanics article - Small Wireless Internet Service Providers
You see, WISPs use roaming fleets of 60 GHz antennas, which broadcast using the same frequency at which oxygen vibrates. Because of this quirk of physics, the signal quickly deteriorates. "You can't send it more than a kilometer," Rucker says. This arrangement would make for a pathetic radio broadcast—at that range, you're better off yelling into a bullhorn and buying bulk lozenges. But the essential crappiness of the 60 GHz range is both a curse and a blessing. Because the range of frequency is so terrible, the FCC decided people don't need to register to use it. As a result, WISPs can set up in a hurry, juicing up a building within days rather than the weeks or months it takes to lay fiber-optic.