How Net Neutrality Affects College Students
Monday, September 21, 2009 by Mike Bertolino 
Net neutrality is an interesting concept, in that we're a practicing it right now. Net neutrality keeps all of the websites we read coming in at the same speed. What the internet service providers (ISP) could do is cut deals with larger companies so their webpages could load faster. This would net the ISPs like Comcast, Time Warner and Verizon more profit. This could effect students in at least two ways.
Starting a Website
Let's start out with an example. There are two video sharing sites, one is YouTube and the other was just started by a recent college graduate. While our friend creating the video site is putting on the finishing touches, Youtube is also finishing up a deal with Comcast to make their site load faster than other video sharing sites. Now our friend at the startup, may have a great idea but, more people will wind up going to YouTube because it loads faster.
If this type of practice were put into place then it would be harder for startups to gain traction because larger companies would have a leg up on the competition.
Capping and Regulating Internet Use
If the ISPs stopped being net neutral, then internet bills would effectively look like cell phone bills. You would be charged a certain amount of data and then once you went over it, they would charge extra.
Let's say you are a prolific gamer. You have a level 80 character on World of Warcraft and are playing constantly. If this were to be put into play then you would have to find a plan that works and pay for it. In another case, a web worker might have to spend most of his or her day online fixing websites and publishing content. This would kill if you worked out of home.
The FCC may, in a presentation scheduled for sometime today at the Brookings Institute, announce plans to keep the net neutral that way. The Obama administration has taken more of an active role in the net neutrality debate. Saying that everyone should get the same access to the same internet.
What do you think of net neutrality? Comment below to share!
Images via Wikipedia, Geek and Poke Comics
Reader Comments (4)
I think it would be unfair to give big companies special privileges like that because that gives them an unfair advantage. There are many ways to make websites and videos load faster but that's going a bit far in my view.
As for regulated internet usage, that's impeding and stopping a part of our lives. Im sure that wouldn't happen though because so many people would go crazy and protest against it.
Interesting to think though what will happen to the internet over the next few years.
The FCC is also considering rules that require ISPs to make public their way of shaping Internet traffic. This is really important for those of us that deal with bandwidth throttling when using BitTorrent.
Thank you so much for posting about this and spreading the word. Net neutrality effects everyone. You should direct readers to the Free Press website for more info. And especially call your congressmen about it.
Net neutrality is an interesting concept, in that we're a practicing it right now. Net neutrality keeps all of the websites we read coming in at the same speed.
Thanks for the info regarding Net neutrality. This really helps a lot.