The Internet was never supposed to be about big monopolies picking winners and losers. But that could soon change, with big consequences for consumers. If passed, new proposed rules from the FCC could put your internet access at the whim of your service provider -- meaning the potential for molasses-slow loading and buffering next time you visit Hulu, Netflix or Amazon. Please take a moment and tell the FCC to protect net neutrality and an open Internet. The public comment period ends on Monday, so please act now. The Internet has always been run on the principle of internet freedom known as net neutrality -- no fast lanes, no slow lanes. Net neutrality lets today’s innovative start-ups, operating in dorm rooms and garages, get the same chance to succeed as internet giants like Google, Netflix, Facebook and Amazon once did. The phone and cable companies have been caught messing with net neutrality before. In 2012, the FCC fined the phone company Verizon -- one of the net’s biggest ISPs -- for charging consumers for using their phone as a mobile hotspot. If the FCC’s proposed rule goes forward, expect your phone or cable company to put you in a slow lane whenever it wants to. You paid for a guaranteed speed and internet experience, but you won’t get it anymore. If the FCC allows the big cable and telephone companies to pick winners and losers, it’s a simple equation. They’ll pick the ones who can pay more to be winners and the rest of us to be losers. Big, powerful special interests will gain more control over what happens on the Internet and in the economy. They’ll have more ability to prevent future competitors from growing. The good news, however, is that the FCC is required to listen to the public first. Please take a moment and tell the FCC to protect net neutrality and an open Internet.
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 18:15:45 +0000
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