Net Neutrality – Why should we care ?

(image source: www.exclaim.ca)

It is only fair to assume that many readers aren’t aware of the exact definition of the term – Net Neutrality. So I will start with a brief summary of what it means. Wikipedia has an excellent discourse on this topic. In essence it can be summarized as follows :

Network Neutrality — or “Net Neutrality” for short — is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet.

Put simply, Net Neutrality means no discrimination. Net Neutrality prevents Internet providers from speeding up or slowing down Web content based on its source, ownership or destination.

Net Neutrality is the reason why the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation, and free speech online. It protects the consumer’s right to use any equipment, content, application or service on a non-discriminatory basis without interference from the network provider. With Net Neutrality, the network’s only job is to move data — not choose which data to privilege with higher quality service.

-source : www.savetheinternet.com

For the past few weeks, I’ve been reading about how big telecom and broadband providers are trying to be the gatekeepers of the internet. They want to gain control over the content that flows through the internet, with the sole purpose of making more money. In the UK, Virgin media is in talks with with content providers about paying to have their content delivered faster than others. In an interview with the Royal Television Society’s “Television” magazine, CEO Neil Berkett said that, ”this net neutrality thing is a load of b****cks”. Even in the US, major broadband providers have been contemplating about the control over the internet. Some of the I.S.P’s in the U.S. have been accussed of blocking/delaying bit torrent traffic. Their rationale to regulate the torrent traffic is, that the peer-to-peer bit torrent traffic causes strain on the bandwidth, which in turn delays other relevant content traffic. So, instead of improving their infrastructure( like installing fibre optic cables), broadband providers have decided to restrain the existing flow of internet traffic, which is ridiculous and unacceptable. CNET.com has another very interesting article about the fallacious arguments used by the I.S.P’s to defend their actions.

Net Neutrality is not a new term or priniciple. Net Neutrality has always been the implicit backbone of Internets architecture. It enabled small players, and the long tail of business to thrive and succeed. If you take away this neutrality, and start segmenting the internets traffic into tiers, you basically end up raising the barrier for small(but creative and innovative) players, who could be the next Google or Amazon or Facebook. Internet has always been a level playing field for everybody, where the most creative, talented, and hardworking people succeed. If net-neutrality is compromised, it could also prohibit ‘freedom of speech’, wherein the ISPs could start filtering content(blog post, article, news item) which is detrimental to their interest. This sounds hypothetical at the moment, but could soon become a harsh reality if Net Neutrality is abolished or curtailed.