Net neutrality – It isn’t a political issue

The issue of net neutrality is rearing its head again lately. In a nutshell, net neutrality means that anyone who pays for access to the Internet should get full, unfettered access to the Internet. Opponents want to allow Internet providers to charge for priority access to the Internet. In other words, if you forward an email with a funny joke or pictures of your family, it would take longer (albeit not much longer) for it to reach its destination unless you paid extra to have priority treatment.

On one hand, some compare it to shipping or mail services. If you pay more, it can get there faster. However, we have that now already with Internet service. If you pay more, you can get a faster Internet speed. I don’t want my Internet provider rifling through the data it receives to figure out what traffic is priority and which isn’t. Using the shipping analogy, it would be akin to two people sending an overnight package, but then the shipping company looking at each of the packages and saying, “Hmmm, these guys pay me even more money to be treated special. So, even though they both paid for the fast service, this package will be a little faster and ride on a special armored track to its destination. The other package will ride on our standard van.”

I guess it comes back to why I have never, and will never register as either a Republican or Democrat here in the United States. Both sides want to demonize  the other and then we get crappy laws and services. Be practical, realistic, and straight forward and the rest seems to take care of itself. I operate under the assumption that too many cooks spoil the soup. Stand back, let the soup cook and only add ingredients or input when it is actually needed. Right now the Internet has no place for fiddling with a system that works. Speeds are getting faster and cheaper and less expensive to operate, but providers want to find new ways to make a buck. I have no problem with offering faster speeds for increased prices, that makes sense. Just don’t say here’s the speed you have, and you can utilize all that speed unfettered if you pay an extra fee.

Here’s an article that started my rant for today.

An open letter to the enemies of Net neutrality | Networking – InfoWorld.