The fight for Net Neutrality isn’t dead! The Federal Communications Commission is moving forward, deciding the future of the neutrality of the Internet. The F.C.C. recently concluded a series of roundtable discussions and is in the process of formulating possible solutions to the bandwidth-balancing act that came to light as a major public issue during the last year.
The engineer’s panel discussed maximizing the effectiveness of the existing infrastructure. The legal experts waxed about the wide array of existing options in American law to enforce net neutrality in the states.
The economists warned of Internet Service Providers experiencing quakes in competing with an open Internet.
The battle of net neutrality and the preservation of the open Internet became a rallying point when earlier this year, Netflix ended, or perhaps forestalled, its trouble with Comcast throttling their connection to their customers by agreeing to pay a premium to have access to a sort of Internet ?fast lane.?
The public took notice and there was a massive outcry to the F.C.C. to maintain an open and level Internet, free of attempts to own the methods of communication by companies. Hundreds of videos, one I’ve included via VlogBrothers that explores two sides of the issue, were easy to digest points of information for this issue.
And the F.C.C. listened.
The current leading proposal seems to mix the best of the open Internet and the interests an I.S.P. to keep making money. That’s what government agencies are meant to do: find the best solution for everyone, but not let any one large, powerful body dominate the argument.
But let me be clear. The Internet has always been, is, and must remain an open, level playing field. When Comcast poked the sleeping dragon that represents the users of the Internet (most of America), they impugned on a general rule: the Internet doesn’t have a fast lane. Even F.C.C. Chairman Tom Wheeler said, ?There is ONE Internet. Not a fast internet, not a slow internet; ONE Internet.?
The Internet isn’t a warehouse full of servers in some bunker under the Nevada Desert. The Internet is a little of each computer that connects to it, some big business servers, and the lines of communication that hold them all together.
With the 2014 elections days away, it’s as good a time as any, or perhaps the perfect time, to ask our elected officials what they think of a free and open Internet. It has never been easier to find their emails, Twitter feeds, or any of dozens of ways to get a question across. I wonder what your representative would answer.
You can find more information via the F.C.C. website here and here, and the New York Times here.
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