Net Neutrality Is What We Want!

    Most people have heard of net neutrality, seeing as it has been a hot commodity on news channels and all over the internet, but do they really know what it means when someone says they are for or against net neutrality. The way it was explained to me was that it is the principle that the companies that provide internet services should give the consumers the connection to content and applications equally. Net Neutrality would stop internet service providers from favoring some sources and blocking others that say doesn’t pay as much as others. In other words the internet service providers cannot charge content providers for speedier connections to their clients, other known as “fast lanes” for the internet. This also takes out the opportunity for internet service providers to deliberately slow down content providers that compete against them. Such as Comcast slowing down the streaming bandwidth for Netflix but speed up the connection for their own NBC streaming service. Netflix might not have been as worried as others since they have the billions of dollars to spend on purchasing these fast lanes, but when it comes to small startups that require data transfer or streaming services that compete with Comcast they don’t have the money to shell out.

    This is not only related to our home network connections to the internet but includes the services we use on our mobile devices as well. Back in 2011 Google announced that they were going to release a product called Google Wallet and it allow customers to pay for stuff with their phones. The first phone with this capability was released by Google called the Google Nexus and shortly after Verizon launched their version of the same phone yet it lacked a certain feature. Verizon had blocked the use of Google Wallet with their version of the phone. This brought great dismay to many customers and drover them away from using Verizon’s services. This worked directly against a set of directives Verizon agreed to when leasing the spectrum from the FCC that included “Open applications: Consumers should be able to download and utilize any software applications, content, or services they desire:”. These are the types of incidents that Net Neutrality is trying to solve and prevent from happening in the future. This will not only allow people to have less restrictions depending on what carrier they decide to go with but will turn the internet back to the way it was designed to be, a way to connect and communicate freely amongst the internet.