Net Neutrality Regulations Essay

Imagine having to pay an extra $10 a month just so Netflix would stream fast enough for you to watch movies, or being an app developer and having to pay AT&T millions of dollars just so your customers can access your app on their network. These are the types of things that are prohibited through Net neutrality regulations. Net neutrality is the principle that all the traffic on the internet must be treated without discrimination, be it commercial or political. On December, 14, 2017, The Federal Communications Commision voted to implement chairman Ajit Pai’s plan to end Net Neutrality, removing the regulations that protect us from the shady profit seeking ways of powerful telecommunication giants. The protection of these regulations is imperative

for the future of our internet, they prevent internet service providers from preferring certain content, applications, or services over others allowing us to have a pleasant internet experience.
The internet is a wonderful invention, created by a man named Tim Berners-Lee in 1990, who stated that “net neutrality allowed me to invent the world wide web without having to ask anyone for permission or pay a fee to ensure that people could use my idea” ().

Berners-Lee’s creation of the world wide web has allowed millions upon millions of people to connect and share their ideas in a way that is instantaneous and free. Accessing the internet itself costs no money, it’s acquiring the connection that often costs money. The companies that provide this connection are called ISPs or internet service providers, unfortunately many cities only offer a few options when it comes to ISPs, this lack of competition in the market often creates a monopoly or duopoly where one or two companies provide internet for an entire city, having complete control over the prices they offer and the services they allow. The Obama era net neutrality rules which were repealed by Trump’s FCC “required internet service providers to offer equal access to all web content without charging consumers for higher-quality delivery or giving preferential treatment to certain websites” (Collins), without these regulations service providers can slow service for companies and consumers that don’t pay premiums, creating a discriminatory environment where companies might interfere with comments that make them look bad, block certain applications that they compete with, remove access to union sites during a labor issue, or increase their own profit by making developers pay more to avoid having their data

throttled.
Understanding how the internet works can be difficult, a way to easily visualize it is to see it as a series of interconnected wires that meet at central point, known as a router. These routers receive data, known as packets, from individuals, sorts it and redistributes it hastily(Pershing). Routers have no problem organizing and delivering these packets when the demand of consumers is low. The problem occurs when the amount of packets becomes too much for the router, when this occurs the router starts a queuing system, much like the line at a grocery store. This “queuing” system is the where most of the main problems of net neutrality appear. Those who are supportive of the concept of Net Neutrality believe that this “packet” should be processed on a first come first serve basis, this system treats all packets equitably without regards to the size, content, or location of the data. Within the internet community this type of networking is called “best effort”, because a network makes it’s best effort in delivering packets optimally. Without this “best effort” concept, much of the internet falls apart. It ceases being an open network aided by ISPs, who simply connect you to whatever data you want, anywhere on the network but instead becomes a closed network molded and entirely dominated by service providers who’s “incentives….to violate net neutrality have never been greater”(). This forces the consumer towards ISP-owned applications and streaming services that would not survive otherwise.