13 Feb NET NEUTRALITY: WE WIN TEMPORARILY!
This is the biggest story that most people didn’t know or care about. I believe that is the case because most people didn’t understand what was happening or didn’t understand what was at stake.
The FCC ruled on Thursday February 26th that the internet will be regulated like phone line operators. The ruling is for the greater good. Companies such as Comcast and Verizon want to have companies like Netflix, Amazon, Google, etc to pay to have access to a fast lane on the internet to deliver their services to customers. Other smaller providers that couldn’t pay the” ransom” would be stuck with whatever access Comcast or Verizon chose to give them.
How does this affect you? Let’s say you have a beef with Netflix or Amazon and get your streaming videos from Big Bobs Streaming video service, Bob is a small company that can’t afford to pay to be in the fast lane of the internet, so what happens to your videos that you pay good money to Bob to provide and Comcast’s absorbent fees to have access to the internet. Well, you may get videos that buffer in the middle of viewing or just takes a long time to download, or are just flat unusable. Eventually what will happen is that all the smaller companies like Bob’s will not be able to compete and go away, leaving us with fewer choices as to who we use for services over the internet. This will most likely lead to paying more for fewer choices.
The fight is not finished as the big ISP’s will appeal and fight back because they want to profit on both ends. They want to charge companies to use the network (internet) and we as consumers also pay a lot of money to Comcast to have access to the internet, which will be watered down if the ISP providers get what they want. Eventually as consumers we will be limited to what Comcast provides or whatever companies pay the toll.
As soon as Netflix or other companies like them start paying a toll for the fast lane on the internet, that will trickle down to us the consumer and we will have to pay more for less choices on the internet.
I encourage you to follow this story as it evolves because it will have an impact on all of our lives.