The way internet works is really simple. I pay my ISP (Comcast) for my internet access. Google pays their ISP for internet access. Both ISP’s are connected via the backbone pipe owned by AT&T (or Verizon or another NSP). Both ISP’s pay AT&T for the traffic that they route through that pipe. Everyone gets paid, and everyone is treated equally.
What is the big problem with net neutrality? Both AT&T and Comcast want a piece of Google, and YouTube and bunch of other big websites – that’s the problem. Even though they already got paid for the traffic, they want Google to pay them a fee for the privilege of transmitting their packets.
What will this mean for an average customer? Some of your favorite websites will be horribly slow, because they didn’t pay your ISP, or someone in the middle for transport. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. We are talking about corporations here. Think about the implications… I have one word for you: Synergy – the vilest, most revolting word in English dictionary.
Your ISP will probably sign deals with some big websites, and create some sort of preferred network. For example, since Google pays more to Verizon than WordPress or YouTube, Blogger and Google Video will load much faster than their competitors. The telecos will make mountains of money just by allowing Google and Microsoft try to outbid each other to get the fastest loading speeds on most of the networks.
The websites themselves are likely to pass down the fees to the customers. You will probably see more adds everywhere, and more subscription websites than ever in history. After few years without net neutrality, it will be impossible to aimlessly surf the web without a credit card. You want to read the news? Pay a subscription fee. You want to watch a funny video? Hey, we accept paypal!
And of course you should expect to see your ISP to roll out some kind of gold package bullshit. After all, why should average customers get all the “advantages” of the high – speed networks funded by the transport fees from the websites? You most likely will have to pay an access fee to use the high speed networks.
In other words, telecos and ISP’s will be paid for the traffic not once but 3 times – their normal fee from the customer, the extortion fee from the big website, and finally the fee from customers to access the internet at a normal speed.
And you know what? There will be no super-fast connections they are promising. Everything will be riding on the same old pipes we have now. They will just throttle down bandwidth for those who don’t pay. And if the pipes get to clogged up, they will throttle down some more and up the prices again.
Do you have a data plan for your cellphone? Few people can afford these things today, unless their company is footing their bill. Why? Because the wireless hand-held networks do not have net-neutrality rules. They are overpriced and totally useless. Now telecos want to apply the same business model that worked so wonderfully for cell networks to the internet…
This is a lose-lose situation for us. I really loved having broadband connection. But I guess it’s time to start getting used to those 56KBps speeds again. Because that’s probably how fast my blog will be loading on most ISP’s in few years…
This video can probably explain this better than I do: