Net Neutrality

Imagine logging on to your computer as you normally do, only to find that the web pages are loading slower. A lot slower. Now, imagine discovering that restoring your Internet speed is not a matter of fixing a few technical problems, but a matter of who you are. That's right, your Internet Service Provider (ISP) is deciding the quality of service you receive based on who you are (Read: how much money you can pay and how much influence you may have).

This, dear readers, is a matter of Net Neutrality.

The Internet has been kept neutral since its creation--the same quality of service is provided to everyone. Its built into the structure of the Internet. However, it has recently come up that some ISP's in the U.S. would like to start providing different qualities of service to different people.

An article in the New York Times discusses this issue. They look to Europe as an example of how replacing Net Neutrality with Net Transparency (as I will refer to it) could be the best model for American Internet. This means, they think it better if ISP's were simply and completely transparent about their Internet quality levels. They should tell every possible customer how they determine who gets what type of service and who they allow to do what with their service. This way, the Internet could become more profitable and need less governmental regulation.

However, I am not sure this is entirely true. Compared to Europe, the U.S. has very few ISP options--mostly just Comcast or Verizon. This means, even if they were transparent about their services, there wouldn't be very many options for quality of Internet Service. More than likely, the options would be this level of not-so-great quality or that level of slightly-better-but-still-not-great quality service. In Europe, this is different. With so many different ISP's and so much competition, it's more likely to find one with the quality of service you are not only able to pay for but also that you would prefer. So, while this model may work in a country with lots of ISP companies, I do not know how well it would work in one with so few.

But why does this matter? Well, do you want to pay more for the same quality Internet you are getting right now? Do you want to get less quality service than businesses simple because you're an individual and not a company with influence? Probably not.

Right? What do you think?