Central Illinois | gmoney - 2/27/2015 07:45
I get that this discussion has turned into more government = bad. And I usually agree. But I also have to say that I'm in favor of the net neutrality concept. It means that service providers can't block internet content, they can't throttle content, nor can they prioritize some content over others based on whether or not some website has paid the ISP more to move that website's customers to the front of the line. Basically, your ISP can't pick and choose which site runs well (or runs at all) on your internet connection. And the legal system is littered with court cases where some ISP has done just that. I read a case the other day where a local telephone company/ISP provider blocked access to VOIP services because it wanted to force all customers to stick with their traditional land lines. To put it another way, what would you do if your internet provider decided that Ag Talk was either blocked, or throttled to the lowest priority traffic on their server?
The argument that other net neutrality countries have slower internet service doesn't hold any water with me. Your pure connection speed is one thing, how quickly the ISP decides to deliver websites back to you is another. And I wouldn't hold the US out as a beacon of light around internet speeds - we aren't even in the top 10 fastest countries. I also get that if you are reading this on dial-up or sattelite, your service is so slow that net neutrality probably doesn't matter. It's more of a thing for those with high speed connections.
Will the government mess this up? Probably. But I'm of the opinion that the concept is a good one.
In the court cases you mention did the balance get restored after the case? If it did then it proves again the lack of need.
Though on he surface I initially felt as you do, the more I see opportunity for less net neutrality. If The gov starts giving licenses for domains it can become very unbalanced as groups domains could take months to be approved while others are fast tracked.
To Internet speeds yes it does effect overall speed as cost controls will inevitably go in place and thus money to improve Internet speed will be deincentivized. Unfortunately this can not be proven due to nothing to compare to in the future, unless it is deregulated.
I am aware our speeds are not the fastest, but compare coverage size to other nations and we are doing well I the whole.
Thank you for a better argument than "you just hate Obama". I enjoy a good debate it is what furthers society.
Edited by ben5398 2/27/2015 09:51
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Net Neutrality, Fill me In
