Before high speed internet became common place in most homes one of the ways that dial up providers tried to hang in there was pointing out that you were just paying more to access the same internet. In fact, one of those companies still hangs on that slogan today. It’s true: if you have access to the internet, you’ve got access – it’s all the same, except for the speed.
That might not be true any longer. Large broadband providers and telecommunications companies want to be able to limit what parts of the internet they grant access to or charge additional fees to get there. These companies will tell you that certain company’s sites are unfairly hogging too much bandwidth and they want to reserve the right to restrict that. Opponents of their plans will tell you that they simply want to serve up their own content in its place.
And thus, the battle over net neutrality has begun. Google, a supporter of net neutrality, has defined it as: “Network neutrality is the principle that Internet users should be in control of what content they view and what applications they use on the Internet.” (Source: http://www.google.com/help/netneutrality.html). Google has some powerful names on their side: Facebook, Twitter, eBay, LinkedIn, Amazon.com, and Mozilla (the makers of the Firefox web browser) to name just a few.
Why is this important do you ask? Consider this made up, but potential, scenario: Time Warner is a well known internet access provider under its Road Runner brand. They also own AOL, CNN, Warner Brothers, HBO, Time – and the hundreds of brands under each. Without net neutrality Time Warner could force Road Runner users to get their news from CNN if they want to watch it online – under the claim that MSNBC, Fox News, or other news sites are unfairly hogging bandwidth. Would they? We don’t know. Without net neutrality could they? For sure.
Comcast, Verizon, and AT&T are all fighting against net neutrality. These companies have sought to be able to charge companies that offer certain services online fees for increased bandwidth and/or speed. Other opponents of net neutrality will argue that providers should be able to do as they wish – otherwise investment in these providers would be slowed and they would fail to grow, or fail altogether.
President Obama has gotten involved and is a net neutrality supporter. The FCC is involved. The House of Representatives and The Senate are involved. This isn’t going to go away quietly and if you aren’t paying attention, you should be.
One good article to get up to speed can be found here: http://www.fiercegovernmentit.com/story/obamas-tech-aide-reaffirms-net-neutrality-support/2009-10-18. To keep up on a regular basis, try searching Google News (http://news.google.com/) for net neutrality and reading the latest.
Subscribe