Why does Net Neutrality matter to you?
If you or your company are not operating a web site, you might think it doesn’t. You would be wrong. One of the most beautiful things about the Internet is freedom of information, and mobility of knowledge. It’s an open circuit that anyone, anywhere can plug into. The U.S. Senate is starting to make it less accessible.
The Internet is the great equalizer: Anyone, anywhere, as long as they have access to an Internet connection, can educate themselves about anything they are interested in. They can use this knowledge to improve their lives, and the lives of the people around them. We in the West are often caught up in our own arrogance; Did almost all the Great Thinkers come from Europe? Did none pre-1950 come from Africa, or South America? I’m sure many of them did. I’m quite certain we learned nothing about any of them in school.
Great Thinkers, inventors and philosophers live everywhere around the world. A free, and open access Internet will ensure that all their ideas are shared, for all of us to benefit.
Last week, by a vote of 11 to 11, the Senate Commerce Committee, failed to approve an amendment to a major telecom bill that would have ensured all Internet traffic is treated the same regardless of origin or destination. What this means is not all Internet traffic will be treated equally in the future.
Every Internet company (Google, eBay, Microsoft, Metamend, and Joe’s web design) want Net neutrality rules. They ensure free access to a level playing field; Not just for the large companies, but the small ones too.
Network providers, like At&T, who provide the Internet connections argued the rules ensuring that all data is treated equally were unnecessary and burdensome. Republican committee members attacked and rejected the concept of Net neutrality regulations which would have barred network providers from discriminating “in the carriage and treatment of Internet traffic based on the source, destination or ownership of such traffic.” This discrimination could mean that in the future you will not be able to access a video preview, because you, your provider and the web host have not paid an additional fee to a backbone provider to carry their signal. Don’t forget, you already pay your cable / DSL provider for access, and web site operators also pay to make their content accessible online. We pay a lot of money each month to our provider to ensure our material is available when you try to visit us. In the future, you might not be able to.
In essence, what the major network providers are asking for is the ability to place toll booths on the Internet. (If I was Hugh MacLeod I would love to draw that one). People who access at today’s rates get slow access to some content. Want to get everything you get today; pay up!
Sounds like a big step backwards which will only stifle innovation. Perhaps someone needs to remind Congress that its the small companies which drove the innovation that created the tech industry which is driving growth, and laying the groundwork for all of North America to stay competitive in the future.
Werner Vogels from Amazon had this to say:
The phone and cable companies will fundamentally alter the Internet in America unless Congress acts to stop them. They have the market power, and regulatory permission to restrict American consumers’ access to broadband Internet content, including music and movies, and have announced their plans to do so.
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