Gerardo Santizo
Mrs. Pierce
English
26 January 2018
Net Neutrality
Imagine the internet, the place that the modern world is extremely dependent on changes drastically. Millions of people use the internet every day to do tasks such as check their email to watching videos online, but what that if the internet transformed into something similar to Cable TV? Yes, Cable TV, the service that many strongly detest. Internet Service Providers or ISPs such as Verizon and Comcast could actually manage to do this. According to “Net Neutrality Repeal Means You're Going to Hate Your Cable Company Even More”, instead of charging a regular monthly price for access to every service or app at no extra cost, they could require their customers to buy bundles such as a video package or a social media package completely separately (Eshoo). In addition, the ISPs will be able to throttle internet speeds of a service they do not like. The internet would change indefinitely. However, there is one regulation signed by the U.S. Congress that protects the internet from this horrible outcome. This regulation is under the classification of Title II of the Communications Act of 1934, otherwise called Net Neutrality. Net Neutrality is the idea that ISPs cannot throttle or block their customer's internet speeds and that they have to treat all websites the same while not favoring others. Nonetheless, the Federal Communications Commission or the FCC wants to repeal Net Neutrality, which would drastically change the internet. It would allow the Internet Service Providers to slow internet speeds and favor some services over others, therefore granting them access to slow down internet speeds to other competitors to the platform they prefer. Some people such as members of the FCC believe that Net Neutrality is holding the internet back from its fullest potential. However, this is unacceptable and Net Neutrality needs to stay. There should be Net Neutrality because, without it, it would introduce uneven services, a decrease in innovation, and higher costs.
Without Net Neutrality, uneven services will become habitual. Some customers may have faster speeds, and some may not. This will become an enormous problem for customers who are trying to access the internet. In an article published on Nation Magazine called “Fighting for Net Neutrality,” it expresses that, “it will give telecommunications conglomerates a blank check to create “fast lanes” for paid content from corporations and billionaire-funded politicians” (Nicholas). What Nicholas tries to explain is that ISPs will create “fast lanes” for the companies and very wealthy people who want their content to reach their customers faster. Also, according to the same article, ISPs will give customers fast internet speed, (also called fast lanes) if they are willing to pay extra. Some people may refuse to pay more money for their internet consequently, they will get slower internet speeds (Nicholas). Here Nicholas suggests that slower speeds on the internet will be a consequence for people who are not willing to reimburse extra money to the ISPs. Additionally, the ISPs will be able to block certain services in favor of others. Evidently, the uneven services are a disaster waiting to happen and will produce major backlash towards the ISPs and the FCC.
Simultaneously, the internet depends on new companies to increase innovation. Innovation is the creation of new products and ideas. The repeal of Net Neutrality will cause the innovation on the internet to decrease drastically. One article suggests, “Without it, consumers would get…a less diverse, less interesting [internet], said Evan Greer” (Jacobson). Here Jacobson explains, that without Net Neutrality the internet will become dull and boring with consumers having almost nothing to look forward to. As well, in the article “5 Major Ways The Internet Will Change Without Net Neutrality,” it explains that ISPs will make it increasingly difficult for smaller companies to launch new services if they are not in affiliation with existing players (Kim). Entrepreneurs who are trying to create a new company on the internet will face many hardships ISPs present to them, thus giving the company almost no chance to expand and become profitable. Therefore, the internet will become increasingly tedious and inadequate for some people who are seeking for new opportunities on the internet. In other words, the internet’s innovation will plummet. Without innovation, the customers will obtain no motivation and have less excitement to use the internet because it will always be the same companies that are available for them to use.
Concurrently, the lack of innovation and uneven services are a consequence of the increase of costs ISPs are going to require to their customers and the companies that customers intend to access. As one article suggests, the repeal of Net Neutrality will allow ISPs to charge customers to get access to a service like Netflix, while charging the companies themselves fees for their service to access fast lanes for their customers (Kim). This explains that the Internet Service Providers will be able to charge their customers more to access the services they want to unblock and have faster speeds to. While simultaneously charging the companies to have access to grant their customers faster internet speeds. As stated in “What is Net Neutrality?”, “Without it, consumers would be paying more money to their internet companies” (Jacobson). Here Jacobson is trying to express that consumers will have to pay more to their Internet Service Provider if no Net Neutrality were to exist. The Internet Providers will charge their customers for anything they want to because there are no more regulations that can avoid the ISPs from being able to accomplish this. Additionally, the fact that makes the prices even worse is that about forty percent of the United States of America obtain access to only one ISPs with a reliable internet speed. This will give those ISPs greater power and be allowing them a monetary monopoly. They can charge their customers as much as they want, and there is nothing the customers can do because there are no other options for them to access the internet. All in all, the higher costs mean that more people will not be able to access broadband internet or no internet at all.
Some people like the FCC may argue that there should be no Net Neutrality because, without this regulation, it will promote competition and the internet can finally reach its greatest potential; however, this argument is erroneous because of the scarcity of ISPs people can choose from to access the internet and the limitations of the services customers can access due to lack of innovation. Agent Pai, the chairman of the FCC states that repealing Net Neutrality is helping the internet by “promoting competition”. The article published on ABC News titled, “5 Major Ways The Internet Will Change Without Net Neutrality” suggests that no Net Neutrality means that it will be harder to start a company on the internet especially if they are a smaller company and are less significant (Kim). As Kim suggests, the repeal of Net Neutrality will make it increasingly difficult for companies that are just beginning on the internet to flourish. This will leave the internet without much competition for some services because of the difficulty to become successful on the internet. In similar terms, Rogers, the editor of the article, “More than 100 Million Americans Can Only Get Internet Service from Companies That Have Violated Net Neutrality” states, “Based on the Federal Communications Commission’s own data, the ILSR found that 129 million Americans only have one option for broadband internet service in their area, which equals about forty percent of the country.” Here, Rogers explains that almost 40% of the US has access to one internet service provider that offers broadband speeds. According to the FCC, the definition of broadband speeds is internet speeds that are or above twenty-five megabits per second. Twenty-five megabits per second is not up to par with standard speeds that are reliable nowadays. This, with no doubt, shows that there is little competition in the ISP market because many Americans confront the problem of conforming to the only ISPs’ rules in their area or not have internet at all. The repeal of Net Neutrality will cause the competition on the internet and competition in the ISP market to decrease, giving consumers almost no choice for variety.
Furthermore, Net Neutrality needs to stay. Without it, uneven services, a decrease in innovation and higher costs will start to make their way to the internet. The uneven services will make the internet to become slower at the choice of the ISPs. The decrease in innovation will take away the freedom to create new services without being fined heavy fees for their consumers to access their site. Also, higher costs will make it more difficult for customers to access services and cause strain on companies who will have to pay large sums of money to make sure that their service will be accessible at a reliable speed. If the new company is not in a connection with a bigger company or corporation, it will become next to impossible to survive for long on the harsh market on the internet. Net Neutrality is essential to the internet, and without it, consumer’s rights on the internet will be taken away. This cannot happen. Yet, on December 14th, 2017, the FCC officially repealed Net Neutrality. At the moment the internet is in the hands of the ISPs, and there is no telling what they will do with it. All consumers can hope for is that they respect their rights on the internet, but that is unlikely to happen.
Works Cited
Eshoo, Anna G. “Net Neutrality Repeal Means You're Going to Hate Your Cable Company Even More.” USA Today, Gannett Satellite Information Network, 12 Dec. 2017, www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/12/12/net-neutrality-repeal-means-internet-like-cable-tv-high-prices-few-choices-anna-eshoo-column/942013001/.
Jacobson, Lindsey. “What Is Net Neutrality?” ABC News, ABC News Network, 11 Dec. 2017, abcnews.go.com/Technology/net-neutrality/story?id=48596615.
Kim, Susanna. “5 Major Ways the Internet Will Change Without Net Neutrality.” ABC News, ABC News Network, 15 Jan. 2014,abcnews.go.com/Business/major-ways-internet-change-net-neutrality/story?id=21541399.
Nicholas, John. "Fighting for Net Neutrality." Nation, vol. 305, no. 16, 18 Dec. 2017, p. 3. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=afh&AN=126492347&site=ehost-live.
Rogers, Kaleigh. “More than 100 Million Americans Can Only Get Internet Service from Companies That Have Violated Net Neutrality.” Motherboard, Vice, 11 Dec. 2017, motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/bjdjd4/100-million-americans-only-have-one-isp-option-internet-broadband-net-neutrality