My name is Andrew Fraser. I live at 197 Taos Street in Los Alamos. I’ve read Mr. Smith’s slides and the draft survey in the attachments to the agenda. It is critical to do the survey well. I want to focus on the following three broadband issues:
1. Privacy
2. Censorship and
3. Pricing
With respect privacy, let me ask if after sending email about your vacation in Europe does it bother you to see more adds about ways to spend money in Europe? Beyond reading your email, ISPs can record and monetize the sequence of WEB sites you visit.
With respect to censorship, recall the fuss about net-neutrality a few years ago. ISPs were giving preferential treatment to the traffic in which they had financial interests. Now, Fox-News does not provide a platform for Nancy Pelosi, and Twitter doesn’t provide a platform for Donald Trump, but Trump and Pelosi can both use the Post Office without any trouble. Fox-News is not a common-carrier and the Post Office is. What about Twitter, and what about your ISP? I don’t know about Twitter, but I think an ISP should be a common-carrier.
With respect to pricing, I find the DPU rate schedule pretty clear, but I have found it difficult to get firm information about what broadband options are available. That’s the kind of behavior an economist would expect from a discriminating monopolist.
In summary, I would like the survey to ask:
- Do you trust that your current ISP respects your privacy?
- Do you trust your current ISP to act as a common-carrier?
- Do your trust your current ISP to be open, honest and fair about pricing?
Thank you for your attention.