This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2010, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Last week, you may have seen two confusing words — "net neutrality" — floating around again on news sites all over the Internet.
Many people may not know what the concept means, but it has a direct effect on what you do online. So we all better pay attention.
In general, net neutrality refers to the idea of having an equal Internet from all content and ISP providers. It's a proposal in which anyone can freely use the Web without preferences for how much you pay and without rules on who gets the fastest bandwidth.
Last week, the Federal Communications Commission approved its very first proposal regarding net neutrality, and news of the decision lit up the Internet like a Christmas tree.
No one was satisfied with the ruling. Big corporations who run ISPs, such as Comcast and Verizon, felt the new rules were too restrictive and would stifle innovation on the Internet. Advocates of net neutrality believe the new rules didn't go far enough, and could give companies such as Comcast and Verizon enough loopholes to throttle down bandwidth or give faster speeds only to those who can afford it.
So how does this affect all of us?
If it weren't for these new rules, someone who subscribes to Netflix streaming for example could have faced serious issues with speed while watching a movie. Imagine watching a video on the service and every so often the movie has to stop to buffer, or perhaps you witness jerky movement because your Internet speed isn't fast enough. Internet providers like Comcast want to slow down the bandwidth to streaming services like Netflix because they say it clogs their pipes.
Don't think an Internet provider would do that if given the chance? Several years ago, Comcast was restricting the bandwidth of people who were using bittorrent applications to trade files on the Internet.
But I believe these new rules aren't strict enough.
What the new proposal also does is allow providers to set pricing tiers based on how much bandwidth you use — in other words, a pay-as-you-go model. That could get expensive quickly if you stream movies or music.
It also means that full access will be only be granted to those who can afford to buy it, which is completely contrary to the philosophy of the Internet. The web and the information it offers should be available to everyone, regardless of your social or economic status.
Finally, the new rules only apply to land-based Internet connections but not wireless Internet. So a company like Verizon could block out your mobile phone's access to, say, Netflix, so it can only allow access to its own V Cast mobile TV service.
All of this suggests that all Internet users should pay close attention to discussions about regulating net neutrality. So far, this discussion appears to be shaping up as one of the most important communications issues being debated today.