CHARLES PRITCHARD
Staff Writer
The Federal Communications Commission passed Net Neutrality and reclassified broadband internet, with the decision just scraping by in a 3-2 vote, on Feb. 26, 2015.
“These new rules are guided by three principles,” said the FCC in an open press conference. “America’s broadband networks must be fast, fair and open — principles shared by the overwhelming majority of the nearly 4 million commenters who participated in the FCC’s Open Internet proceeding.”
These new rules and regulations come in the wake of numerous Internet service provider practices that have resulted in almost monopoly-like conditions.
For those who are not aware, the picture accompanying this article is a fabrication — one that has been floating around the web — and seems too outlandish to be true.
But for Netflix, the popular streaming service, it was something that felt very much like a reality.
On Aug. 25, 2014, lawyers representing Netflix petitioned the FCC with a document to contest the Time Warner Cable/Comcast merger that detailed just what Netflix went through.
Comcast is what is known as “Terminating Network.” In layman’s terms, when one accesses a website as a Time Warner Cable/Comcast customer, the traffic has to go through the Comcast network, even if the service doesn’t have a deal with the ISP.
“Despite purchasing as much transit possible on all available routes,” Netflix’s lawyers stated, the viewing quality of Netflix’s services reached near VHS levels in January of 2014. This was more than odd, considering another ISP they used was using less routes, but working just fine.
Faced with the possibility of losing customers, Netflix brokered a paid agreement with Comcast for direct access, and within that week, viewing quality for Netflix streaming shot back up to HD quality levels. At that point, Netflix felt that something strange was going on.
Netflix had everything they needed to reach Comcast’s customers, yet it wasn’t until they started paying Comcast even more money that they start to see an improvement. With a few phone calls, Netflix lawyers learned from a few other sources that companies had been given the same exact treatment they went through, right down to the payment and sudden increase in web quality.
In a nutshell, this is what Net Neutrality is trying to stop. Computer Science Professor Ziya Arnavut commented on Net Neutrality and the campus.
“Not only may it impact students, it may impact anyone if we start to charge users, for example, because they are watching movies from Netflix. Clearly, this may be a new way to tax people.”
Internet service providers do not have any rules, laws or regulations that tell them they cannot throttle users’ data, limit what users can browse, or block those who do not step in line.
That was until the FCC stepped in. Now there are things like a set speed that all customers are required to have access to, a “no data throttling” rule and much more.
There are some things to understand about how this affects broadband customers and mobile carriers. The Net Neutrality regulations are not some sort of magic edict that will suddenly increase the speed of the internet tenfold, make it cheaper or the like, as few students claimed when asked “What do you think Net Neutrality will do?” when approached at random on campus.
What the Net Neutrality regulations will do is ensure that cable companies and ISPs will not be able to pull a stunt like Comcast did — charge money for extra channels or websites, in this case.
Of course, as you can imagine, major ISPs are not happy with this. With the ruling, Internet service providers will be expected to play by the book, and the FCC wants the consumers’ help to ensure it.
The FCC asks customers to test their download speed using a variety of means, such as Speedtest.com or the Android/iPhone app named “FCC Speed Test,” and see if it truly is what they’re paying for.
But the fight for Net Neutrality is not over. Many Republican politicians seem to be seeking to overturn the landmark decision.
So what does that mean for the consumer? It means something has to be done.
As Arnavut put it: “ … we should demand Net Neutrality.”