Since the dawn of the Internet, traffic has mostly been evenly distributed among the many Internet services trying to attract customers. There have been a few instances of service providers violating the spirit of net neutrality, but these have been few and far between. That could, however, change very soon due to a recent ruling by a District of Columbia court that negated several rules that have, up until now, been governing the Web.
Net neutrality, which governs the fair transfer of data over the Internet, has long been overseen by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Internet Service Provider (ISP) Verizon opened a lawsuit, saying that the FCC should not have the right to tell the company how to handle traffic on its network because it is not classified as a utility. A federal court in Washington, DC, agreed with Verizon and struck down most of the rules regarding net neutrality that the FCC had been enforcing.
The ruling gives ISPs the right to legally regulate traffic that travels over their lines, which could be bad news for some companies and individuals who rely on Internet services for their livelihoods. The decision also paves the way for services to have to pay a premium for an ISP to give its users faster access to their websites. Some services may also have to pay a fee, which has been called pay to play, to an ISP just to get any traffic to their sites. For example, entertainment site Netflix requires a lot of bandwidth to stream content to its subscribers. Without net neutrality, Internet providers could legally force Netflix to pay a fee for the service to be accessible to its customers. If Netflix refuses, all subscribers on that particular ISP could be shut out from the Netflix website or be given access so slow that streaming the content may prove difficult or impossible.
Smaller businesses that could not afford to pay such fees could suffer severe consequences. It isn't all doom and gloom with regard to net neutrality, however. The FCC can still appeal the ruling, and two members of Congress have introduced the Open Internet Preservation Act of 2014, which would restore the rules that were struck down by the DC court's decision until the FCC makes its next move. Communications workers in any business that has a website should stay apprised of the FCC's actions and the proposed Act's progress, since they could greatly impact their companies and how they communicate with customers.
Even though a DC appeals court ruled against the FCC in a recent net neutrality case, there is still hope for a free and open Internet. The FCC may appeal, and the Open Internet Preservation Act of 2014 could temporarily reinstate the FCC's net neutrality oversight. In the meantime, anyone with a vested interest in the Internet will have to wait and see which ISPs decide to start striking pay to play deals.
(Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net)
Become a member to take advantage of more features, like commenting and voting.
Register or sign in today!