Internet Neutrality

It’s been over 40 years since the Internet was invented. It was given to the world at no cost at all, and it has been one of the biggest inventions in the history of mankind. People took some time to get used to it, but today, it is an integral part of each and every individual’s life. Without the Internet, it would be impossible to imagine the kind of development that we have today, and we can never picture a better future for ourselves. This tool, that was free for decades for everybody without any questions or restrictions, is now under a big threat of being contained. Today, we can access the Internet and use its abundant facilities in an unbiased manner, and this is the “neutral” way that the Internet has been till now. But soon, it might

Thus, the neutrality of the Internet is under attack. To understand the subject in a more clear way, let us first look into what Net Neutrality really means.

The Internet and all its components like webpages, websites, data, hosting, email, e-commerce, etc. are given equal consideration regardless of what information they possess, or who gives out / access this information. It has been like this since the first communication between two remote computers in 1969, or the first email exchange in 1971, or the invention of World Wide Web in 1989. It is an open service that provides the consumer with whatever information he/she desires on whatever topic. This openness is what makes the net “neutral”. Net Neutrality also means that along with the content, we get constant speeds at which we get this information. This means that we do not have to wait extra for a particular website or video to load. So, suppose we want to look for a tutorial on how to assemble a computer from scratch, we would go to YouTube for a video. Then, we would order the components that we need for

It had the control of interstate telephonic services, and was responsible for providing and maintaining these services. Since then, as there was no Internet for a very long time, it had no issues with the telephone services and it functioned smoothly without any worries. But as the Internet came about, FCC now had another burden on their shoulders. The first big problem that the FCC addressed was regarding the classification of cable broadband services. The FCC argued that cable internet was an information service while the rivals, biggest of whom was the Brand X (an ISP), argued that it was rather a telecommunication service and that it should be shared. The case reached the US Supreme Court in 2002. The main reason for FCC putting up this case was to deregulate the cable services like DSL, and have them out of the hands of telecommunication companies. On the other hand, Brand X argued that cable services should be a part of telecommunications, which would result in all the other telecom/phone companies sharing the resources of DSL. To clarify this even further, it simply meant that if the cable broadband were classified as a telecommunications service, it would lose its autonomy and even though any company, whether or not it is a competitor, would have access to cable networks for a judicious cost. Brand X advocated that this would benefit the customers as there wouldn’t be just one authority