[Hrgeeks] Save the Internet: Support Net Neutrality!

[telmnstr at 757.org]

> Talk to anyone who got their First Phone before about 1980 or so.

Wasn't it illegal to connect an independently made device to the Bell 
network back then? You used to have to rent your answering machine from 
the phone company.

Digital switching came in the 70s, I'd be hard pressed to believe the 
sound quality on analog switches was better than digital.

> The breakup of Ma Bell actually happened during the Carter administration,
> although actually the original lawsuit filing took place in Nixon's last days.
> It was a terrible, terrible mistake, but it wasn't the FCC's fault or the
> president's fault either, and is basically irrelevant here.

At various points in their time, Ma Bell wanted to do all sorts of nice 
things, like charge people an extra fee to use a modem, and require people 
using a lot of modem time to buy a separate business priced phone line.

While it's fun to look at classic Bell videos on Archive.org, and the end 
of the day, the monopolistic phone company slowed progress.

> Electronic Communication Privacy Act which was basically railroaded through
> Congress by the cellphone lobby.

RCPA and such was a result of politicians getting busted due to 
evesdropping, no?

> and they'd send out an engineer who would deal with it.  Now I think the
> field station in Norfolk has two engineers for most of the whole Mid-Atlantic
> region.  There was a time when the FCC actually made sure that products that

I didn't think there was a field station in Norfolk? Thought it was moved 
to Chesapeake or something? I remember the facility in Virginia Beach that 
was eventually sold and has gone through a number of companies.

> had Part 15 approval really DID have Part 15 approval rather than just a
> sticker printed in China saying that they did.  That time is long gone,
> because the FCC has no technical staff to do these things any more.

Trust me. The FCC still does quite a bit of testing. You can go online on 
their site, and look up products by FCC ID, and get the reports. You can 
see the hardware sitting in the test chamber, and the captures from test 
equipment looking for RFI and such.