Yesterday, U.S. communications regulators voted unanimously to support an open Internet rule that would prevent telecom network operators from barring or blocking content based on the revenue it generates.
“I am pleased that there is broad agreement inside the commission that we should move forward with a healthy and transparent process on an open Internet,” FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski said.
The vote came despite a flurry of lobbying against the net neutrality rule by telecommunications service providers like AT&T, Verizon and Qwest which say it would strip them of the ability to manage their networks effectively and would stifle innovation and competition.
[The rule] allows for “reasonable” network management to unclog congestion, clear viruses and spam, and block unlawful content like child pornography or the transfer of pirated content.
The challenge is how much favor is oriented toward the end consumer versus how much to control the free market. How much freedom should an ISP have in deciding how to manage traffic on their networks? What should be done to make sure one ISP does not play favorites by slowing traffic to their competitors?
From the looks of if, the FCC is leaning towards preventing service providers from discriminating what services and content they will carry over their networks and under what circumstances.
What if I am in a one-horse town and I only have one reasonable option for high-speed Internet and my ISP decides it does not like specific sites like the Drudge Report, Fox News, CNN or categories of sites like hate, gambling, drugs, adult (not talking child porn here), or all sites in Arabic?
One the other hand, what if I decide that I want an ISP that supports my moral values and I elect that company to provide me my Internet service?
What if my ISP elects to throttle-down P2P traffic? Is that bad? It is bad for the P2P user but is it bad for everyone else? So should the ISP be given free reign or should there be some regulation?
I support the principle behind net neutrality in that all Internet traffic should be treated equally. As rule, I don’t like the idea of my ISP screening, interrupting or filtering Internet content without court order. Any fragmentation of services or control over specific protocols should be the exception and not the rule.