Net Neutrality

Currently when we use the Internet, we can access any Web site we want at anytime we want to access it.  Internet users are able to perform searches, access web sites, watch and create online video, send and receive email, perform instant messaging and Skype/iChat. Our ability to do this unencumbered and at relatively the same speed and price as all other Internet users is due to a principle called “Net Neutrality.”   Net Neutrality is a principle that preserves a free and open Internet.  Net Neutrality means that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) cannot discriminate between different kinds of content and/or applications.  Further, an ISP cannot intentionally degrade or block access to a web site.  Net Neutrality ensures equal access and a level playing field for all Web sites and Internet technologies.

This could potentially change if the biggest ISPs (cable and telephone companies like AT&T, Comcast, and Verizon) are able to persuade the FCC to allow them to introduce tiered pricing for access to their networks.   These ISPs would like to charge Web site operators, application providers and device manufacturers different rates for faster service. This tiered pricing structure would offer faster speeds and preferential treatment to web site operators or search engines that pay higher fees for data transmission services.   Web site operators who can’t afford to pay the higher fees will experience slower speeds.   Their sites won't load as quickly and their applications and devices won't work as well.   Also, without Net Neutrality consumers may see that an ISP has blocked the Web site of a competitor, or slowed it down so much that it's unusable.

The Internet was designed as an open network.  Since the Internet's inception every Web site and service has been treated equally.  This is what allows bloggers to compete against large news organizations and small web site operators to compete against larger companies with bigger advertising budgets. That's why when you use a search engine, sites are listed that are the closest match to your request and not those that paid the most to use the network.

Traditionally, ISPs have operated with a pricing structure that charges consumers for Internet access.   They are now proposing to continue to charge consumers for access to the network plus charge the web service providers as well. These providers will then pass those costs along to consumers possibly by charging to view content.  The ISPs believe they should have the option to institute this pricing structure since they built and own the telecommunications network infrastructure.  

I believe that Net Neutrality ensures that innovators can start small and achieve great things like Google and Facebook without facing pricing structures that encumber their ability to compete. Unless Net Neutrality is enforced, many innovators and entrepreneurs will be restricted from the marketplace by big corporations that pay higher fees for better Internet service.  Potentially, on a tiered Internet controlled by ISPs, only their own content/services or those offered by their joint partners will succeed.