The Internet: 'If It Ain't Broke, Don't Fix It'

  Patience may be a virtue but, sadly, not one I possess. Anything in my fast paced life that slows me down –like a sluggish connection to my Wi-Fi network --drives me crazy. There I was the other morning counting down the seconds until the spinning beach ball stopped and the connection locked. Those few seconds of downtime felt like minutes.

It alarms me to think that this could be my new reality if net neutrality is overturned. In May, the chair of the FCC proposed rules to allow internet service providers to charge extra fees for companies like Google, which provide content. The internet providers or ISPs, would also get to decide if Google and other companies like it get preferred treatment.

Here’s how that would work: Right now all information on the Internet is moving at the same speed more or less. But if net neutrality goes away some information will move fast and other data will be fixed in the slow lane. What had been a free and open Internet, would become a two tiered system divided by who can pay to play. Smaller websites and other content providers will be hung up in the slow lane, or pushed off the Internet highway. And the ISPs could charge ordinary consumers—like you and me--more to get more Internet access. Think cable writ large.

Protestors have flooded the FCC’s open comment period since the rule change was proposed. More than 3.7 million comments overall, a lot of those from net neutrality supporters who have kept the issue in the public eye with demonstrations on the ground and online. And just a few days ago President Obama stepped into the fray, saying “an open internet is essential to the American economy and increasingly to our very way of life.” 

But there are plenty who reject the free speech argument in support of net neutrality; instead, they say a free market will keep the internet open and free.  I say the likelihood of that is zero, zip, zilch and none. Once the big players get their way at the front of the line, the Internet, as we know it today, is forever changed.

The same day President Obama announced his support, demonstrators went to FCC Chairman Thomas Wheeler’s home and blocked his driveway to –wait for it—slow down his ability to get to his office.

The FCC Commissioners now must decide whether to preserve net neutrality by regulating the Internet providers. Here’s my unsolicited advice to them:  I think the future the Internet represents is best governed by a simple old fashioned strategy—if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Patience may be a virtue but, sadly, not one I possess.. Anything in my fast paced life that slows me down –like a sluggish connection to my Wi-Fi network --drives me crazy. There I was the other morning counting down the seconds until the spinning beach ball stopped and the connection locked. Those few seconds of downtime felt like minutes.

It alarms me to think that this could be my new reality if net neutrality is overturned. In May the chair of the FCC proposed rules to allow Internet service providers to charge extra fees for companies like Google, which provide content. The Internet providers or ISPs, would also get to decide if Google and other companies like it get preferred treatment.

Here’s how that would work: Right now all information on the Internet is moving at the same speed more or less. But if net neutrality goes away some information will move fast and other data will be fixed in the slow lane. What had been a free and open Internet, would become a two tiered system divided by who can pay to play. Smaller websites and other content providers will be hung up in the slow lane, or pushed off the Internet highway. And the ISPs could charge ordinary consumers—like you and me--more to get more Internet access. Think cable writ large.

Protestors have flooded the FCC’s open comment period since the rule change was proposed. 3.7 million comments overall, a lot of those from net neutrality supporters who have kept the issue in the public eye with demonstrations on the ground and online. And just a few days ago President Obama stepped into the fray, saying “an open internet is essential to the American economy and increasingly to our very way of life.” 

But there are plenty who reject the free speech argument in support of net neutrality; instead, they say a free market will keep the Internet open and free.  I say the likelihood of that is zero, zip, zilch and none. Once the big players get their way at the front of the line, the Internet, as we know it today, is forever changed.

The same day President Obama announced his support, demonstrators went to FCC Chairman Thomas Wheeler’s home and blocked his driveway to –wait for it—slow down his ability to get to his office.

The FCC Commissioners now must decide whether to preserve net neutrality by regulating the Internet providers. Here’s my unsolicited advice to them:  I think the future the Internet represents is best governed by a simple old fashioned strategy—if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Callie Crossley is the host of Under the Radar with Callie Crossley and a frequent host of Basic Black.