FCC Net Neutrality Consumer Complaints Are the Internet's Primal Scream

The FCC’s net neutrality rules took effect last month, uniting customers of all Internet providers in rage at throttled bandwidth and price gouging. More than 2,000 complaints have since been filed on the commission’s website for everything from slow dial-up speeds to ignored contracts.

National Journal’s done some fine consumer reporting, getting the first 50 complaints under a Freedom of Information Act request. You can read all of them here, but we’ve handpicked a few that will give you an idea of what’s up.

On Slow Speeds:

I have AT&T U-Verse for my business and it is so slow, that if a 2 phones were using the interent (sic) at the same time, it would be a stand still. It’s under 1 mbps. I tried the speed test on the network with just 1 item and it’s almost as slow as dial up.

On Mystery Charges

BLUE RIDGE COMMUNICATIONS of PENNSYLVANIA charges us 75.00 a month for broadband cable internet and throttles our internet at night if we go over 256 GB. We often stream movies and shows via Netflix and Hulu and do not see how we are going over 256 GB in a day. We now cannot use her internet between the times of 5pm to 1am or she will go over and be charged accordingly. We never had this issue before until recently. On top of all of this her internet rarely works properly, with frequent outages and errors. Blue Ridge Communications has sent technicians out before who claim that everything is in working order.

On Business Effects:

We are small business in Manhattan, New York. We have our phones and internet with XO communications. We are not getting the bandwidth or speed that we are paying for. For 2 weeks we have been complaining to XO, and although they claim to be fixing the problem, nothing has been done. Unfortunately we have a contract with this provider, We are entitled to 10 mgs of bandwidth and paying for that and are getting 1.5 mgs.

On Terrible Service:

I am getting very incosistent internet speeds from my provider. Time Warner/Roadrunner. I have brought the issue to their attention, and they direct me to a speed checking site that shows me getting the speed I am paying for. But if I go to a speed testing site that is different from the one they recommend, I find my download speeds to be very incosistant, ranging from 5 mbps up to the 30 mbps that I am paying for.

In Summation:

You seriously need to wake up and stop letting Verizon and att keep shoving their dicks up your ass and actually do what’s right for the consumers instead of lining your pocket book put more lowband on reserve for smaller companies of you will fuck over everything and everyone including yourselves (ajit pai ,Michael o’reilly) stop relying on preset politics based on your party and actually use your brain for once and see what’s actually right.