I heard this headline on my 11pm local TV news last night and figured I better do some checking to see what was going on. Well it seems that they were right. As of yesterday, the FCC ruled in favor (a 3 - 2 vote along political lines) of Obama's "Net Neutrality" regulations which will put the Internet back into the dark ages.
It basically imposes three new rules:
- no blocking content -- this means that any content including streaming audio & video are fair game for any provider or customer.
- no slowing down -- an ISP may not slow down particular sites or type of content due to the load it places on their networks.
- no paid fast lanes -- ISP's may not create special high speed paths for customers willing to pay more. All bandwidth must be equal...
The reaction from the major ISP's has been extremely negative, especially about providing high speed services for customers willing to pay for it... The ISP's are placing major infrastructure and network upgrades on hold pending on how this regulation all settles out. While on the surface it seems beneficial, this is akin to California's energy crisis of 2000 where the PUC forced providers who owned generation facilities to sell off their generation capabilities and buy power from a network of providers. This instead of lowering prices created brownouts (from artificial shortages) and increase rates over 800%.
Here are four articles with much more detail on Net Neutrality:
Read these articles for yourself. We need to do something about this ASAP probably with legislation that both parties can support and is veto proof until Obama leaves office.
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