Net Neutrality Rant

These days there are two types of people: Those for Net Neutrality and those against Net Neutrality. I am a card carrying citizen of the “For Net Neutrality” village and I am happy with the way the Internet is currently operating. We can get to the content we want when we want it, we can pick the Search Engine we want to use and view it all through the Web browser of our choice. We would not like it if one day our ISP blocked us from viewing our favorite web sites like ESPN, Google, YouTube or the Weather Channel unless we signed up to pay extra each month for a “Premium Internet Content Package”. No sir, we are strictly for Net Neutrality. We like it the way it is and we don’t care to pay the greedy cable companies more money.

But what if the Internet did not work the way it does right now? What if it worked like the Satellite TV or Cell phone networks? Some phones are only available from certain cell phone companies (iPhones only from Cingular) and not all channels are available on every Satellite TV network (NFL Sunday Ticket only from DirectTV). Jim Rapoza of eweek said it best in his scenario:

Hey, I hear there’s this great search engine called Google that supposedly works really well and offers all kinds of cool online apps. Problem is, you have to be a Verizon [ISP] customer to get it. And if I switch to Verizon, I won’t be able to access the eBay auction site anymore because that is a Comcast-only site. And if I leave Comcast, I won’t get VoIP anymore, as Verizon completely blocks that.

That would be crazy. No one would like that scenario, except the ISPs as they could ratchet up their fees to you and I. Which is why most of them are against Net Neutrality; they want more of our money. And, if Net Neutrality fails, that is what they will get. People will have to pay more to have what they already have.