The Open Internet Order Mandated by the Federal Communications Commission: Net Neutrality Explained

The divided system of service that telecoms are lobbying for in Washington D.C. will threaten the level playing field small entrepreneurship enjoys against bigger business, dig deeper into the salaries of the working class, and end the unified space of information that we call the internet. The agenda of the FCC in collusion with the telecom companies and the United States Government is a system of control. The FCC will assemble a framework of regulation that begins with an ‘Open Internet Order’ proposed to the Senate, and continue with a series of distinct restrictions in access to content and connectivity. It will continue to set up a class system of divided users onto a two-tiered system of service that up until now has been an open road.

DARPA’s inception of networking the computer mainframes of college campuses in the late seventies invariably led to a radical shift of power, from a militarized post-apocalyptic switching system to the most important organization of information in history. Cyberspace will always exist, if only for corporate and military purposes, but the internet that broke free from DARPA can only function like a great democratic society does; with freedom and equality for all users.  The shaky scale of ‘Net Neutrality’ worked out by developers  and providers is about to tip in the favor of the telecom carriers who technically own the telephone, cable, and fiber optic lines the public sector uses to gain access.

The reloaded internet of the telecom’s future runs in two lanes; one fast for exclusive service and the other running slow, with speed limits, stop signs, and dense with advertising. This two-tiered system of control will provide the heavy carriers such as AT&T and Verizon the discretion as to what’s cruising in the fast lane and what’s in the slow, and most widely used. The carriers would then be in effect ‘gatekeepers’ of wired Internet traffic, controlling the content of a road paved with tax-payers dollars and ingenuity.

An internet dominated by corporate self interest will damage users at a lower end of the economic ladder; students, libraries, schools, bloggers, and advocacy groups such as the NCE.  A divided net will give rise to a new class of users scrambling to gain access to a glossier and faster network. Telecom lawyers know a faster connection rate and a flow of radical new content will constitute a trade-off for future consumers, forcing them to use a service that ultimately discriminates against them. This fast lane will most likely be a network where you are charged for bit usage with no cap on the bill. A business will have to pay for a place on the slow side of the road. This new network will become the norm if the Net Neutrality agreement is broken down against the tide of telecom greed.

Broadband networks are how we want our devices to interact with the net these days, and the telecoms’ own the road. As content on the internet cycles higher consumers constantly need to upgrade hardware and secure faster connections to communicate with the information. Wireless connectivity does not enjoy the same freedoms as a fixed connection currently does. This convenience may not trade off so well in the future, when wireless will stabilize itself as the norm for networking hardware. This might give birth to yet another schism, bringing about a wireless internet that may look and act nothing like the wired one.

The ultimate fear is that the internet will take the shape of an enforced medium, with the same relationship news media has with the United States Government and advertising has with telecom carriers. All carriers will ultimately hold the same limitations in their terms of service agreements and contracts, forcing consumers to buy in against themselves. Maybe when wireless tech is standard the people will finally own the airwaves.

The Open Internet Order is now in the hands of Congress. As it is unconstitutional, and will continue to be challenged in higher court, there is still hope in the community that the internet is safe for now.