Published December 1, 2010
Net Neutrality, short for network neutrality, is a political policy that is currently under debate within the forum of our United States Congress. In this article, the author makes it quite clear that he stands in full opposition of the enactment of this proposed legislation. Net neutrality is supposed to prevent against discrimination on the Internet, but according to Fontaine, “If the full scope of network neutrality were to pass, and become federal law, there would be a very good possibility that many, if not most Internet users would realize a considerable drop in performance along with a price increase.”
As of right now, the government has mostly stayed out of the Internet, which is why here is the United States we have the absolute freedom to use it as we wish. The proposition of net neutrality seems to be like a good idea on the surface, but when you actually consider its implementation within the span of reality, you can begin to see how and where there unintended consequences would likely occur.
“The major problem is that if the full net neutrality act is passed, service providers will not be allowed to sell tiered services, which means that those end users that require more bandwidth or priority bandwidth for their major applications will not be able to purchase the bandwidth priority for those applications. Currently there are programs, often through service providers to cover these requirements. Net neutrality legislation would eliminate that.” So while the individuals who use more bandwidth, such as people who download music and movies, are taking up the majority of network resources, the rest of us would be left to squeeze into the remaining bandwidth.
Permitting the authorization of this net neutrality legislation would lead to an unfavorable outcome for the bulk of Internet users here in the United States. Everyone would be subject to the same level of Internet service, which would thwart the need for a competitive market. Ultimately the overall quality of our Internet service would be diminished, as there would be no need to try to out-do a competitor to provide better service.
The significance of net neutrality is apparent, in that it would have a lasting effect on the lives of the vast majority of individuals living within the United States. Unfortunately, it continues to remain an issue that goes largely unnoticed by a greater portion of the public. And even when it is discussed, the argument has become so polarized that it is hard to get an accurate reading of what the heck net neutrality actually is. Almost everything written about has been derived from a perspective that is either in favor of one side issue or the other.
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