Current F.C.C. chairman, Ajit Pai, has announced plans to repeal and replace all protections provided by current Net Neutrality regulations. If this change were to take place, it would affect virtually every person using the Internet in the United States.
History of Net Neutrality
In 2005, a small phone and internet company based in North Carolina began preventing its subscribers from making “phone calls” using the internet application Vonage. The phone company saw use of the Voice over Internet Protocol (VOIP) reducing its income from traditional long distance telephone calls. Consumers complained, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), during the George Bush administration, forced the provider to stop blocking Vonage and fined them for their actions. This was the beginning of government agency, judicial, and legislative policy now known as Net Neutrality.
The 2005 policies have been strengthened repeatedly to protect a free and open internet, available to all and without limitations. The FCC is technically an independent agency but President Obama in 2015 publicly supported strengthening of Net Neutrality policy. This call resulted in FCC reclassification of high-speed internet as a telecommunication service as opposed to an information conduit. This re-classification strengthened the concept of Net Neutrality.
How does Net Neutrality affect me?
Today, we can access social media, news services, streaming audio and video, gaming sites, and all that the internet has to offer with the same speed and simplicity. Consider television. Can we get the same options with satellite TV as cable? Does every cable subscriber get all content available or do we have to pay extra for sports packages or movies?
Without Net Neutrality, our Internet providers could begin to bundle and restrict access. Much like cable, “You will have to pay extra for that,” and in some cases, options that we would like to access will be completely restricted or require purchase of additional packages in order to access. Providers may adjust delivery speeds, developing a two-tier or multi-tier system for content. Premium content, subsidized by large companies, could be delivered at higher speeds with other content delivered more slowly to preserve bandwidth. At the very least, Internet access costs to consumers would be certain to rise without government oversight and larger companies pushing cost increases on to consumers.
In a tier system, Google and Facebook and Netflix would all be available at full speed, but start-up services and blogs and perhaps school websites would load far more slowly. With a bundle system, a family could pay for a social bundle to access Facebook and Pinterest, and a streaming bundle to access Netflix and Hulu, but not pay for email and cloud service or for general access. This family would not be able to find medical advice or any support outside of services they have paid for, and students would not be able to research or have access to their Google Cloud documents. In addition to bundling or slowing some services, providers would have the ability to totally silence competitors and block Websites, censoring information they disagree with.
This bundling of options is built to protect larger companies and to increase revenue for providers, but in doing so hamstrings users and totally eliminates opportunities for start-up companies to deliver new services and develop market share.
Why does F.C.C. chairman, Ajit Pai want to dissolve Net Neutrality?
Mr. Pai stands on the side of big business and claims that current regulations “stifle innovation and keep big companies from investing in new internet infrastructure.” In reality, Internet providers have actually increased spending on Internet infrastructure since the 2015 expansion of Net Neutrality while continuing to grow revenue at a faster pace than other sectors of the U.S. economy. Some opponents explain that, in fact, these larger providers would be able to scale back on infrastructure development if Net Neutrality was repealed and would no longer need to worry about competition from smaller start-up companies in the sector.
What can we do to save Net Neutrality?
New York Democrats are on our side, but the FCC vote on December 14 will be decided by a panel of three Republicans and two Democrats that are currently leaning heavily toward repealing existing regulations.
Contact our Senators, Representatives, our state Governor, and the President requesting continued support for Net Neutrality!
Some tools are already in place to assist with this communication.
Petitions:
A petition of the official White House Website entitled “Do Not Repeal Net Neutrality,” has already accumulated over 200,000 signatures (as of 11/28/17). With the effect repeal could have on all Americans, our goal should be over a million signatures! Tell your friends!
Another petition on the same site requests, “Replace Ajit Pai on FCC, Restore Net Neutrality, Make Last-mile Networking a Public Utility, and Stop Corporate Abuse.” This more aggressive petition still needs signatures in order to trigger a response from the White House.
Simple prepared message to your representatives – And Phone Calls!
Citizens can send an email to your representatives by using Battle For the Net’s simple interface. Entering your name, email, and mailing address to a pre-printed letter, or write your own, and click once to automatically send to multiple political representatives for your area and Senators in places of influence. This tool then prompts users to speak directly to offices of these politicians. Entering your phone number prompts a call to your phone and, without hanging up or additional dialing, connects users, in order, to a ladder of politicians from the local level into national and executive levels. If an office places caller on hold, push star to jump to next politician in line.
Contact the FCC directly
Call the FCC directly @ (202) 418-1000. It only takes 30 seconds or less. It's a voicemail, and all you have to do is leave a message asking them to stop the repeal of Net Neutrality.
ResistBot
Texting
resist to the number 504-09, a bot will ask for your name and other info. It then sends a message to your senators, representatives, governor and the President. The team is collecting donations to fund the cost of sending out letters as part of the campaign.
Resources in preparation of this article
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