14 DAY TRIAL // With one day left to tell the FCC what you think about its plans for net neutrality, American Internet companies are once more telling the administrative body to change its plans and not allow service providers to charge extra for a fictional Internet fast lane.
According to Reuters, the Internet Association, which represents about three dozen web companies, including Google, Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Netflix, Reddit, Yahoo, Twitter, Zynga, Vimeo and more, filed another request with the Federal Communications Commission.
The Internet Association criticized the FCC’s plans to allow ISPs to prioritize delivery of some traffic in exchange for extra cash and called for actual net neutrality to be instated.
On top of this, it looks like there are plans to roll out a campaign about the FCC’s proposal and net neutrality. During this time, infographics and videos will be shared to explain to Internet users how net neutrality works and how far off the FCC’s plans are from this ideal.
Internet users will also be invited to suggest amendments to the FCC’s proposed rules through an interactive document viewer on the website, said Michael Beckerman, the association’s President.
Following a decision taken back in January, the FCC was told that it has no legal right to impose net neutrality rules on Internet service providers. Left without this power, the Federal Communications Committee tried to find a way to still have some control over the situation.
Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the FCC, came up with a set of rules which he defended even when everyone said they are the exact opposite of net neutrality. Despite some opposition from several members within the Committee, the plan was pushed forward.
The proposal has been online for several months now and public comment has been open during this entire time, although a huge wave of comments only came after John Oliver did a piece on this topic on his show, “Last Week Tonight.”
The FCC’s Tom Wheeler revealed last week that they’ve received over 647,000 messages on the topic. Most of these demand the very same thing the tech companies are asking – to protect the Internet from the greedy ISPs.
In short, the FCC’s proposal is to allow the Internet Service Providers to charge extra money for content creators that want to get their data to the users in a hasty manner. Not only is this so-called fast lane completely inexistent, but this would also mean that all companies who don’t pay up will get their service slowed down.
The principles of net neutrality forbid such behavior and they’re pretty clear in stating that all Internet traffic should be treated equally.
“The Internet is threatened by broadband Internet access providers who would turn the open, best-efforts Internet into a pay-for-priority platform more closely resembling cable television than today's Internet,” explained the Internet Association.
The best example for this is the situation that Netflix was in a few months ago. Starting late last year, the company’s performance dropped on several ISPs across the United States, including Comcast and Verizon. Once the company begrudgingly agreed to sign a contract for the “fast-lane,” the traffic speed magically spiked to previous levels, indicating that the ISPs were most likely throttling the connection.
The only solution remains the reclassification of ISPs as common carriers, making the Internet a basic utility, like electricity and water. This would be a simple matter of paperwork that would save everyone a lot of headache.