Goddammit commies again
aSHIT Pai saved the internet by ruining it.
FICORA to the rescue! When everything else fails, try reGuLaTiOn. Gulat or Gulag, the place where failed competition goes to die.
Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA) is imposing price caps
Too-high wholesale prices impede competition on the broadband market. To promote competition, telecoms are to cut wholesale prices by 28 to 80 per cent. The Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority (FICORA) is imposing price caps on fibre local loops provided by the three market leaders in Finland. Furthermore, regulation on copper local loops will be scaled down. The decisions become effective in three months.
This is the last stand for Freedom. ;) Fibre snatching commieunity fibre moles. Support your local ISP.
This action by FICORA seems quite sensible to me, and totally in keeping with the principles of Net Neutrality. In Aotearoa (NZ), telecommunications regulators made a similar decision, which has been good for both internet users and the ISPs industry in the country.
About a decade ago, one formerly-state-owned company, Telecom, used to have a total monopoly on the telecoms infrastructure in our country, which had been paid for by the public prior to the privatization of the company. Other telecoms companies had to lease access to the lines, in competition with Telecom's own retail arms (its landline and tolls business, and an ISP called Xtra). The only exception was some coax lines laid down in some neighbourhoods in a couple of the larger cities by an Australian competitor (also formerly-state-owned), but even they had to lease access to Telecom's fibre to connect their coax to their own servers in OZ, and the rest of the internet. Obviously Telecom gave preferential rates to their own businesses, preventing fair competition in the sector.
About 10 years ago, the telecommunications regulators forced Telecom to allow its competitors to connect their own exchange and routing equipment through the existing lines, a process referred to as "unbundling the local loop". After that, ISPs could connect customers directly to their servers through their own exchanges routers, without having to pay at Telecom's tollgates. Later, the regulators forcibly broke up Telecom's monopoly, ownership of the lines infrastructure was returned to public ownership (under a state-owned company called Chorus), Xtra was sold off, and Telecom was rebranded as Spark and continued as a landline and mobile retailer.
In summary, if one company controls access to a country's core telecoms infrastructure, or a small handful act like a cartel, both internet users and ISPs in that country get rorted. The state is the only entity with the power to discipline the lines companies, and fix the situation. To me, the FICORA decision looks like a win for net neutrality. If I'm wrong about this, please explain how.