Hello! And welcome to our Friday column, Worst of the Week. There’s a lot of nutty stuff that goes on in this industry, so this column is a chance for us at RCRWireless.com to rant and rave about whatever rubs us the wrong way. We hope you enjoy it!
And without further ado:
I have tried to avoid much conversation in this column regarding net neutrality, mostly because it’s one of those “government” topics that is so tied to politics that it’s hard to take a funny look at just how sad it is. (Unlike Sprint! Zing!) Also, it’s such a quagmire of legalese that it makes my brain hurt working through all the permutations.
Thankfully, the president chimed in this week with his two cents on the topic, which seemed to put just that much more pressure on Federal Communications Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler, who President Barack Obama nominated for the position and who has a history of working with the president. That sort of political arm-twisting was all I needed to find at least a sliver of humor in what is an over-analyzed situation.
And just to prove how funny the situation is getting, check out these protestors who showed up in front of Wheeler’s home:
Of course, all they did was prevent probably the most important man in the net neutrality fight from going to work to, you know, try to work out this net neutrality issue that currently is not tilted in the way of those protesters. Well played protesters. Well played.
As for the handling of the protester situation, you gotta hand it to Wheeler that he tried to play along for the cameras. Most people in such a situation – trying to get to work in the morning knowing that waiting for you is a shit-storm of a situation that no matter how you solve it is going to piss off half the country – would have flipped out, throwing coffee, kicking people and throwing an adult-sized temper tantrum.
Yet, there is Wheeler trying to make the best of the situation. Sure, he knows there is a camera on him and that anything he does in the slight bit confrontational would just blow up spectacularly in his face. But that possibility is put in front of numerous celebrities on a daily basis and we see how good they are at handling such situations.
Plus, Wheeler apparently drives a convertible Mini Cooper, and how funny would it be to see the FCC Chairman flipping out on some protesters in front of a Mini Cooper.
Anyways, back to the net neutrality issue. Obama’s comments indicated that he would prefer the FCC to bring regulating Internet access under Title II of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, or basically to treat Internet access as a public utility.
This, of course, brought out legal threats and claims of cats and dogs sleeping together – you know, mass chaos – from telecom operators that currently charge “market rates” for Internet access. My guess is that these legal threats, if acted upon, will last just long enough to see a potential change in leadership at the White House. Funny how those things work.
Basically, these comments set up extreme points on both sides of the table, which is always a good way to begin negotiating on something that people have come to rely upon. Well played government. Well played.
As I mentioned before, I am all for keeping the Internet as open and free as I guess the Internet can be, though I am not really sure what that means since true unlimited access to the Internet typically requires the bandwidth provided by a wired connection and the competitive balance for such offerings seems limited to a choice between two evils in most areas.
On the other hand, I also understand that those controlling this access want to get paid for their investments made in providing this access, except for the times when that connection does not work as I often find from my current ISP on a regular basis, most recently for an entire day. When that happens, you would think they would also be willing to credit me for not having access, but of course that’s not how this whole game is played.
I guess the best part of this net neutrality fight is that the childish behavior on both sides has at least brought some levity to the proceedings. Sitting in front of the chairman’s car is hilarious, as are all the faux-news hosts that have come out with funny arguments in support of the government keeping all that Internet bandwidth flowing unfettered.
Also funny are the claims by ISPs that if they can’t charge what they want for Internet access they will call their lawyers and threaten to cut off all future investments in broadband technology, thus cutting off their noses to spite their faces.
In the end, events from this past week have allowed me to care about net neutrality at least for a short time. And who knows, if it stays this funny I may just pay attention long enough to form a real opinion on the matter.
OK, enough of that.
Thanks for checking out this week’s Worst of the Week column. And now for some extras:
You have to at least hand it to mobile operators in their attempts to make the use of their products and services safer. The latest comes from AT&T, which recently released a survey that found basically anyone with a cellphone is addicted to that device and is willing to put everyone’s life at risk by feeding that addition while piloting 2 tons of metal.
As AT&T so succinctly put it, the report found “that twice as many people as self-reported cellphone addiction are showing compulsive phone behaviors – with three-in-four people admitting to at least glancing at their phones while behind the wheel.”
Scientifically, the report noted:
“We compulsively check our phones because every time we get an update through text, e-mail or social media, we experience an elevation of dopamine, which is a neurochemical in the brain that makes us feel happy,” according to Dr. David Greenfield, founder of The Center for Internet and Technology Addiction and assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at The University of Connecticut School of Medicine. “If that desire for a dopamine fix leads us to check our phones while we’re driving, a simple text can turn deadly.”
Connected to the survey, AT&T touted its “It can wait” campaign that is designed to encourage people to not ride the snake.
AT&T said the campaign has resulted in 5 million people “pledging to never text and drive,” though I will just assume that none of those people live around me or are ever driving on the same streets as me.
I welcome your comments. Please send me an e-mail at dmeyer@rcrwireless.com.
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