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Confused by “net neutrality”

I’ve been trying to figure out what the fight is all about and I’m having trouble doing that. My gut reaction is to keep the level of government interference as low as possible and let companies charge what they want. I’ve heard arguments that worry about ISPs filtering or prioritizing content. Wouldn’t competition take care of that? If you didn’t like what your ISP is doing, I would think you could get another that you did like. Or am I missing something? My biggest worry is that if regulations are enacted, it will only screw up the growth of the internet. How can we predict how the internet will grow or what services will be demanded in the future? How can you write regulations that won’t screw it up? I’m still reading, let me know if you can enlighten me…

Isaac

2 replies on “Confused by “net neutrality””

Against net neutrality legislation

I would like to give you some information from the side opposed to net neutrality legislation. I work with a group, Hands Off the Internet, http://www.handsoff.org/, on this issue and agree with your initial thoughts that if Congress passes a law mandating net neutrality it will hurt the growth of the next generation internet.

The ISPs don’t want to block access to content as the pro-net neutrality side claims. They want to have the ability to develop a faster tier of the internet and charge content providers more for the use of this faster tier. This new tier is needed to address the growing demand for video downloads, and future technologies that require more fiber and ability to provide uniterrupted service.

Take a look at the Chairman of the FCC, Kevin Martin’s comments that net neutrality regulations are unnecessary.

http://www.marketwatch.com/News/Story/Story.aspx?dist=newsfinder&siteid=google&guid=%7BD093217B-CCE6-42DE-947F-12395F413280%7D&keyword=

Thanks for looking into this important issues and I’m happy to provide you with more information.

Re: Against net neutrality legislation

Thanks Mr. Anonymous… My question is if ISPs want to do this, why don’t they? There aren’t any laws blocking higher bandwidth networks that I know of. I would think that actually having a new network with paying customers would do a lot to ease people’s minds. I never have any trouble with businesses trying something new, that’s how progress is made. They create something new, and if they’ve done things right, people want it and they make lots of money. I’m a firm believer that businesses that take chances should be rewarded when they get it right… So what’s the actual argument against this?

Isaac

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