Why Net Neutrality Needs to Happen

This morning President Obama released a statement on net neutrality directed at the FCC. You can read the full statement here. Below is the image that The White House Twitter account tweeted out with a link to the statement.

The underlying idea behind net neutrality is that the internet should continue to operate in the future largely as it does now. The premise is that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) cannot discriminate against certain traffic that flows through its network. This could come in the form of a provider like Comcast slowing Netflix streaming to its customers in order to promote their own or another company like Hulu's service if they are willing to pay a premium for that access. Service providers claim that these "fast lanes" are simply capitalism and the free market working as it should, but we all know that unchecked free markets don't always work in the benefit of the consumer and that is why we have government agencies (like the FCC) in place. 

Tech News blog The Verge gathered a slew of opinions from a variety of sources which you can read here. Although technology policy is generally a nonpartisan issue this time may be different. Obama is calling for a complete reclassification of the internet.

"To put these protections in place, I'm asking the FCC to reclassifying internet service under Title II of a law known as the Telecommunications Act,"

This means the Internet service would be akin to water or electricity services. Companies like Comcast or Time Warner would only be responsible for 'pumping' internet to your house but will have no say on how its used or what you do with it when it gets there. This would be a huge win for companies like Netflix or HBO with their now standalone HBO Go service. The main argument against this is that the service providers are losing control over the commodity they sell and in turn won't be able to benefit their own business by favoring certain services.

But is Comcasts bottom line really what matters? If the FCC heads Obama's advice and the internet becomes a utility, not much will change from what is currently in place. Providers favoring service is few and far between which makes this action more preventative in nature than anything. The root of the problem is that in most places in this country you have one, maybe two, choices when it comes to your internet provider. If you are forced to use Comcast and then Comcast slows Netflix to a crawl on their network which then forces you to pay them even more for either decent Netflix streaming or for their own service. This is a nasty trap many consumers could fall into without net neutrality, so let's all hope the FCC can make the right decision!


-TechnicalScott