The Technology Liberation Front - Latest Comments in M2Z Reborn: Censored, but Free, Broadband is Now Kevin Martin’s Top Priority

Re: M2Z Reborn: Censored, but Free, Broadband is Now Kevin Martin’s Top Priority

Christian Parent — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 01:35:32 -0000

Perhaps the idea would be more popular with higher bandwidth. Does the removal of porn filters also make it more appealing?

Re: M2Z Reborn: Censored, but Free, Broadband is Now Kevin Martin’s Top Priority

toronto escorts — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:50:43 -0000

If this idea is still alive and kicking when the Obama administration has security escort Martin out of FCC headquarters in January–to hearty applause from nearly all quarters in Washington, no doubt–it will be interesting to see which impulse prevails on the Left

Re: M2Z Reborn: Censored, but Free, Broadband is Now Kevin Martin’s Top Priority

Adam_Thierer — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:56:36 -0000

It still just kills me that Martin is going to so much trouble for such a pathetic plan. We are talking about essentially a glorified dial-up service here! I think the title of Tom Evslin's piece over at Circle ID today really says it all: "Free, Slow, Censored Internet: A Bad Idea." Here's a clip from his piece that nails the stupidity of this:

The requirement is that the free service have a download speed of at least 768kilobits/second; this is the speed of the slowest DSL. This is not a mobile service where we might accept a slightly slow speed in return for mobility; it is meant to be primary residential access to bridge the digital divide. But, by the time this service actually exists, the web will not be usable at such a slow speed. Websites get designed for the capabilities of the top 50% of users; that's why dialup is now useless for surfing even though it used to work fine.

By contrast, the Vermont legislature specified that a service won't count as broadband at the end of 2010 unless it is at least 1.5Megabits/second AND realizing that this requirement must escalate, charged the Public Service Board with appropriate and timely upper revision. Nevertheless, this requirement stays the same in the NPRM for the full ten years of the license. 768Kbs will be as obsolete as your old 300 baud modem ten years from now; but it will be the only free service the licensee is required to offer.

The licensee has no incentive to offer better free service because it will also sell a higher-powered service. The NPRM does NOT specify that a quarter of the network capacity be used for the free service; it says "up to" an "as needed". If no one uses the free service, then no network capacity need be devoted to it.

Re: M2Z Reborn: Censored, but Free, Broadband is Now Kevin Martin’s Top Priority

bszoka — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:15:38 -0000

I find it funny that my use of the term "social justice" triggered this AdSense ad:
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