Internet Regulation or Network Neutrality
The country’s big Internet giants are once again lobbying the U.S. Congress and the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for dangerously misguided regulations that could negatively impact your wireless and Internet services.
These big online companies - and their blogosphere and celebrity supporters - want to stop wireless carriers from managing their wireless networks - especially wireless Internet. This would make the Internet companies lots of money, by shifting costs onto network providers like the wireless carriers. But it could cost consumers even more. That’s not fair, and it’s simply bad policy.
These companies are making a dangerous request of the FCC and Congress - basically to force wireless carriers to add capacity to their networks to accommodate a very small number of users’ desire for bandwidth-heavy peer-to-peer services like gaming, streaming and sharing of high-definition audio and video files. Sounds good at first, right? But, if approved, this request will jeopardize the service quality, competitive pricing, features and security you have come to expect from your wireless service. The proposed regulations could seriously degrade the quality of your wireless and Internet service (including the ability to make E9-1-1 emergency calls), opening it up to a host of quality and security problems - unwanted SPAM, viruses, adult content and more. Not to mention that you may end up paying higher bills for worse service!
Wireless consumers have numerous choices of providers, phones, features, plans and numerous other options. They can freely choose what best fits their needs and their lifestyles. Preventing wireless carriers from managing their own networks, so that ALL customers enjoy quality of service, means that only a few users of high capacity could cause delays, or even blockages, of the wireless network for all others. Can you imagine being unable to send a simple email, or check your favorite Web site, all because the guy next door is constantly uploading and downloading huge files? It could happen! Remember the painfully slow days of dial-up Internet service? Do we really want to go back? And what’s even worse, you’d be paying more, for services you weren’t even using.
If the FCC and Congress let flashy online companies and their billionaire founders write regulations that favor their businesses, American wireless and Internet consumers will ultimately lose money, choices, security and quality.