Net Neutrality
You’ve just finished your last final exam. (Sigh). What a relief. With the stresses of school out of your mind at last, you head home, finally getting to relax. You get home and go to get on Netflix, but then you receive an error message. “Oops, Netflix isn’t included in your basic internet plan. To view at premium speeds, please upgrade to the Video Streamer package for an additional $5.99 per month.” (Pause). Frustrated, you close this pop-up window, and click on your favorite show. Loading….loading…. Still loading. The video finally starts playing, but the quality is low and blurry, and before you’ve even made it to the title sequence, the video is loading again.
Of course, this sounds like a nightmare to many of us. Unfortunately, this isn’t just a nightmare; this could quickly become a reality that we all must face. Last Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), voted on party lines to repeal net neutrality. For those who don’t know, Net Neutrality is a concept coined by Columbia University professor Tim Wu in 2003. It refers to the concept that all data on the internet should be treated the same by internet providers like Time Warner Cable or Comcast. For example, right now, with net neutrality in place, these companies can’t charge you more for watching netflix, or for visiting a certain website. Without net neutrality, these companies could charge you more to watch youtube, or to visit ebay.
The former net neutrality rules were set in place in 2015 under the Obama administration. They were repealed thursday by a 3-2 vote, the majority lead by Ajit Pai. Pai’s plan called for a less restrictions on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Time Warner Cable, or Comcast, such that they could give preference to certain websites or companies that may need it. For example, in the future, as self-driving cars become more prevalent, the speed of data being transferred could be the difference between whether or not a car uses its brakes in time. This all sounds well and good, but the problem is that what actually happens isn’t the same as what theoretically happens.
Large companies like Google or Amazon would theoretically be able to pay ISPs to avoid having their websites be slowed down or blocked, but this isn’t an option for small businesses. Without the funding that major companies have, the small businesses have no money to pay ISPs for regular speeds. This isn’t even comparable to a local grocery going out of business because of a Kroger being built near it. This is more comparable to having to drive for an hour to go to your “local” grocery, or walk for a minute to get to Kroger.
Ajit Pai claims that having no requirements for ISPs will foster more competition between competing companies. Companies would theoretically compete for customers by having lower prices or better services. The only problem with this is that ISP’s often don’t have competition. Over 30% of Americans have access to one or no internet provider, so the company providing for them could raise prices, and yet the customer would have no option but to deal with it, or stop using the internet entirely. The monopoly that many ISPs have will not foster competition and won’t make the internet better for anyone.
So who actually wants net neutrality to be repealed? The opponents of Net Neutrality are mainly the aforementioned ISPs. These companies have been lobbying politicians for years, hoping to get legislation passed to repeal net neutrality. If this legislation was passed, ISPs would be able to charge more for the same things we have access to now, especially in areas where the ISP has a monopoly, and customers have no choice but to continue to pay exorbitant prices.
As it stands with the issue of net neutrality still up in the air, ISP’s have already began to circumvent these laws. For example, T-mobile recently introduced a new business plan called “Binge-On.” It allowed for T-mobile users with Netflix to watch shows without it counting towards there data limit. This is clearly an unfair bias towards Netflix, which makes using a smaller company that much less appealing to any T-mobile customer. Not stopping there, T-mobile introduced another plan, whereupon a user could enter a contract for unlimited data, but videos were limited to 480p. This also violates current net neutrality laws, because the fact that the data is video shouldn’t mean that it is limited to lower quality. This is simply T-Mobile trying to save money, since videos are typically more data than a website or email.
The internet is really, quite unique. Nowhere else are you moments away from research papers from Harvard, or any of the countless books transcribed to the internet, or even memes. The knowledge contained in the internet is nearly infinite, and it has always been free to everyone. Why change that now? The internet was made by the people, for the people, so why take that right away from us? A free and open internet protects freedom of speech, promotes innovation, prevents discrimination of pricing, and provides equitable access to information (the open internet.org). It’s not too late to stop these ISPs. The best way to help is to call your congressional representative, and tell them about how this will affect you. Protest. Make your voice be heard.
Bibliography:
Killswitch (2014) - Documentary
https://www.savetheinternet.com/net-neutrality-what-you-need-know-now
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/14/technology/net-neutrality-repeal-vote.html
http://www.theopeninter.net/
Trip Church
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