Net Neutrality Summary (pros/cons USA)

This is an old post I did before the USA repealed NN as I had seen a number of people on Facebook going nuts over it hence the "response" wording in some places.

Feel free to leave any thoughts.

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So I keep seeing people flip out about NN being repealed so here is my response.

Ok, let me begin breaking it down a bit. A great reference is the Daily Wire Video I shared, here is a link: https://www.facebook.com/officialbenshapiro/videos/1665296923507730/?hc_ref=ARQNv4YtLaP5kL6zg1YSdgXBi5gBXOQa8cZzKllaeDFcEqIJW9aIIxbAPC5CKCDJ_XA

So aside from that video lets start with the simple points.

NN has only been on the book for two years. Are we really going to see much of a change? I don't think so. But if we do see changes it will be the prices dropping back to pre-government regulation prices.

On the subject of government regulation, getting rid of net neutrality is decreasing government regulation of our day to day lives. A little lost on where that point is coming from. Moving on.

To start with what net neutrality really did: NN essentially had one purpose, to say that your grandma's email, the videos we have to watch for school lectures, your parent(s) business calls, and information, and the neighbor's porn, all have the same priority on the internet.

I have an IT background, specifically computer systems and network security with an added focus in network architecture and admin. And that is a terrible way to handle your traffic. Every business has a list of what gets priority on the network (inside their private network) and what doesn't need the priority traffic. From the above list I generated I'll break down each one (for the average company) along with a reason for its ranking.

1. VoIP (Voice Over IP) calls, (phone calls that use the network, it's becoming more and more common) top of the list because these are low content (little actual data per packet) but they need to come through at maximum speed so you don't have lag in your calls, especially if your board and a new partner company is working a deal

2. Videos, (note: different companies will treat these differently, as porn is separate, but in this case lets assume its a work/profession relevant information, on the public net Video Games would fall someone around here too) these too require low latency just like VoIP but can pause and buffer if needed unlike a VoIP call

3. Email and other text-based or latency non-dependent content: this is obviously emails and other things that need to load but don't have to get through at warp speed for you to care a ton because you won't notice it like you miss packets in a call, also includes things like websites, file transfer etc.

4. porn, (and other "recreational" media depending on the environment) this is and tends to be, at the bottom as while sure it means you have to wait longer for it to load, your porn isn't interrupting the board meeting between two companies

Keep in mind we are talking about milliseconds of difference here too. Sure you might notice a difference but it isn't much.

So now the ISPs can prioritize traffic, and we might see plans based on the type of traffic you want to use. (although we didn't have them before so no guarantees). There are a couple things that happen:

• ISP pricing doesn't change but you notice that when someone makes a VoIP call your Netflix loads a bit slower and porn takes a few minutes to load now, big whoopdeedoo

• ISP pricing goes up a little bit and everything behaves the same

• Services like Netflix cost a little bit more but you don't notice a difference no matter what carrier (theoretically Netflix is paying the ISPs to make sure that you get your videos faster than someone else's porn)

• ISPs completely rewrite their plans that are available (the best option actually and the one that I hope for, numbers are made up and not a reflection of what happens), you grandparents now only pay $10 bucks a month for unlimited email access, you social media crazy aunt is paying $15 a month for email and Social media, you (the gamer) are paying $45/month for streaming, gaming, social media, email, etc. And the creepy old neighbor has to pay $75/month for his porn

Is that really that bad? No. And I haven't even gotten to the benefits for rural Americans who are currently paying between $50-$75 just for crappy satellite internet.

Under Net Neutrality companies were allowed to pay municipalities to use and supply their service and no one else. Without NN any schmo Joe with the cash to start a local ISP can. But an even bigger issue has been ISPs not caring about rural hard to reach mountain towns like there are in Virginia. These towns were figuring out ways to get the community itself connected but since there aren't internet exchanges near most of them they would need a larger ISP to connect them to the internet. Most large ISPs would just say wait until we can come in and make sure everything is up to our spec. But they never would. Now as larger ISPs expand into other ISPs territory (creating competition) there will also be competition to support these rural networks that have been set up as it means a larger customer base.

The biggest detail though is what a combination of the rural networks and private companies like Netflix and video game companies will drive. Say a few streaming services get together (Netflix and Hulu for the example). And they approach and ISP (AT&T) and offer to pay to guarantee that any of their clients who also use AT&T as their ISP get priority streaming no matter what the plan. After new spreads, most of the Netflix and Hulu costumers start changing ISPs to AT&T as no matter what they pay for they still get good streaming speeds. AT&T competitors will either have to drop their prices on streaming plans or find a new way to bring and keep costumers. Which in the long run will create more competition, lower prices, and more ISPs.

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Hope you found it intresting.
God bless!