eTop Technology, Inc.
on November the 21st this year the Federal Communications Commission the
FCC announced that a vote to repeal net neutrality legislation would be taken on
December the 14th net neutrality legislation is fairly recent it was
written into American law in February 2015 with the stated aim of preserving
the freedom of the internet so it's what most certain to be repealed the majority
of FCC members appointed by the present administration are opposed to it but
it's worried huge numbers of Americans in this special report will examine the
major issues because they go right to the heart of what it means to have
freedom of speech we're not lobbying for one side or the
other we believe you should be able to make up your mind from the facts and not
from the scare stories put out by lobbyist or PR people from either side
here's one typical response from the Vlogger Boogie the FCC today announced
their plan to finally vote to gut net neutrality as it exists and basically
changed the internet as it has always been forever and in my opinion for the
worst Thanks bougie but is this really such a
big issue I'm congressman Ed Markey I am the chairman of the internet and
telecommunications subcommittee in the United States Congress we have
jurisdiction over something called net neutrality that is what are the rules of
the road for the net in the years ahead should it be controlled by just a small
number of very large companies that can put up their own roadblocks their own
toll roads as communications colossi or should it remain an open chaotic
democratic information highway that's the big issue and it's no small question
because it really goes to what our country is going to be like in the years
ahead because it is the way that Americans now communicate he's right it is no
small question and it does go to the heart of what America is about
so what is net neutrality one of the most concise descriptions of net
neutrality we found was given by Senator Ron Wyden he's already won a reputation
for fighting for the freedom of the internet and here he is speaking to the
US Senate this is what net neutrality is all about in a sentence after you pay your
internet access fee you get to go where you want when you want and how you want
and everybody is treated the same from the most affluent person in America to
those who are walking on an economic tightrope every single day they all can
use the internet to get access to those fundamental opportunities that are so
essential to increasing the quality of life for our people put like that it's a
no brainer the fears are genuine and there are basically two of them at
present net neutrality ensures that all content is treated equally
ISPs can't boost access to one type of content and limit access to others and
the first fear is that Internet service providers the companies who provide the
Internet feed to your Rooter want to discriminate against some content
providers who can't pay by throttling their speed effectively shutting out the
little guys and will discriminate in favor of those who can pay more
effectively creating a fast lane a slow lane and possibly even and no-go lane
the second fear is that because they'll no longer be classified as public
utilities they'll be free to discriminate not only on the basis of
money but also on the basis of content they'll be able to throttle the speed of
their competitors block campaigning sites that they don't like possibly even
slow down content from political parties like the Republicans or the Democrats
and yes it's already happened in 2007 the ISP verizon blocked pro abortion
group Naral from using its services to send campaigning text messages though
Verizon quickly reversed the decision because of the public outcry in other
words the fear is that no longer will you be able to go where you want when
you want for what you want the ISP's will decide for you but lets examine those
claims in a little more detail here's Boogie again the FCC today announced their
plan to finally vote to gut net neutrality as it exists and basically
changed the internet as it has always been forever and in my opinion for the
worst but he simply isn't correct net neutrality legislation is barely two
years old before that the internet really was unregulated and ISPs were
private companies able to do what they wanted so the argument that by
demolishing the legislation the FCC will be destroying the Internet as it has
always been is simply false the internet developed rapidly without any form of
regulation did that shut out the little man patently not because it provided the
the little men like Mark Zuckerberg who co-founded Facebook Jack Dorsey who
co-founded Twitter or Sean Rad who co-founded Tinder with the opportunity
to become global businesses and what about Pierre Omidyar who founded eBay in
1995 and became a billion when it went public three years later
they all started as little men there's a confusion here too ISPs and content
providers are different animals ISPs don't make content they simply provide
access to it their competitors aren't specific content providers but other
ISPs those in favor of repeal argue that an ISP that blocks content is simply
cutting its own throat commercially it won't happen now it seems that there's a
lot of false news flying around and one way to separate the false news from the
truth is to look at who is lobbying to keep net neutrality and who is lobbying
to deregulate the internet Association claims to be the unified voice of the
Internet economy that claim would be highly arrogant if it wasn't so patently
ridiculous their members include some of the biggest users of bandwidth on the
planet eBay Amazon the giant Netflix and many others it's effectively a trade
association lobbying on behalf of the giant businesses it doesn't represent
the small users it's a fact that in 2015 when net neutrality was passed into
legislation Netflix bandwidth took nearly 37% over one-third of the entire
internet bandwidth at peak times bigger even than YouTube Amazon and Hulu
combined no doubt today it's even bigger and there's the first clue to what this
what this argument is really about the internet is a finite resource
despite fiber optics and ever faster routers there's only so much bandwidth
available that's something that people just don't seem to grasp the Internet
has finite availability not infinite availability
the more bandwidth that's taken up by the Giants the less there is for you and
me bandwidth is the key here it's a finite resource it has to be physically
pushed through wires and the more bandwidth you have going through a space
the more physical space it takes up so at a certain point you got to have
restrictions on the amount of bandwidth going through there if you have one
company or entity using a lot of it so let's say for example this is where the
bandwidth comes through okay most of it let's say this much is being taken up by
Netflix the rest which is from here to here is for you how was that fair when
taking up all of that and you get this little bit and y'all are paying the same
like they need to either help as far as paying extra money or you need to have
you been with reduced it's just as simple or you raise your prices over at
Netflix to make up the difference because Netflix is charging too little for their
service 10 bucks a month and you talking boat one third of all the bandwidth the
United States come on come on why should I have to feel like I need to
subsidize Netflix with a higher per month bill on my internet because of net
neutrality it's simply illegal to make Netflix
Amazon eBay and the other huge users pay more but between them they use a huge
proportion of the available bandwidth and so they're getting a great deal and
the cost goes onto your internet bill ISPs can't charge these juggernauts more
even if they're taking up most of the available space which in turn cramps
investment in new infrastructure here's the man himself Ajit Pai chairman of the FCC
explaining his intentions my concern my sole concern is what is going to deliver
a better consumer experience in the digital age and I truly believe that
removing some of these regulate that are impeding ip-based investment
getting rid of some of these antiquated regulations is the best way to promote
competition promote consumer welfare and not these over-the-top you know 80 year
old regulations that have been proven not to work in the end the argument
comes down to which you think will provide the greatest freedom government
control of the ISPs business model or market forces that allow ISPs to charge
the big users more for their massive use of bandwidth but for market forces to
work effectively consumers must have choice and this is possibly the biggest
issue let's give the last word to former chairman of the FCC Ted Wheeler
two-thirds of the households in America have no other choice as to where they're
gonna get their internet so this is to go out and claim that somehow this is
some kind of consumer protection is is a fraudulent representation regulation or
free market it really is a question of which is the lesser of two evils you get
your chance to make your voice heard before the vote on the 14th of December
don't waste that chance
eTop Technology, Inc.