Can you imagine the internet being priced like a cable TV package? Let’s say you want to keep using Google. Or Facebook. Or Netflix. Would you be happy if your Internet provider wanted to charge you $50 a month for each of them?
That could happen if the FCC succeeds. Driven by overwhelming greed and less than no concern for average Americans, the FCC just took the first step to canceling Net Neutrality.
One of the likely scenarios is that big Internet Service Providers (ISPs) like Time Warner, ATT, Verizon, Fios, Charter, etc. will be able to price your internet access like they do cable TV, with tiers.
Jeez, they must be salivating.
More money for them, less for you. I mean, if you’re the CEO of Charter, you’re barely scraping by on $98 million a year.
Want access to your WordPress blog? Maybe you’ll be told you have to upgrade to Tier 2! Fifty extra bucks a month, honey. (But it’ll be worth it, because they’ll bundle it with Candy Crush Unlimited and reruns of Real Housewives.)
This would apply to phone apps, too. You know how you’ve come to rely on GPS in your car? How would you like it if Verizon decided that’s Tier 3, an extra $75 a month?
Oh, hell yes, they can! These are all likely scenarios if Net Neutrality is rolled back. Unless we all yell to the rooftops.
This matter seemed to be settled a while back but under the new administration (“Looking out for the little guy”) it’s open season again.
This is going in the wrong direction! Many rural areas have no internet, or inadequate internet. With reasonably priced, wide-open internet, a woman in Appalachia might sell her crafts online and make a few extra bucks. Or a disabled or housebound person might attend online classes, or receive the benefit of remote medicine. Isn’t that more important than squeezing the little guy more? We need to expand access and cut the cost, not make it harder to get!
I’m so upset about this. (Can you tell?) I had a wonderful, uplifting, happy, empowering blog post to share with you but now it just doesn’t seem important.
Because if I have to pay to blog, I probably won’t. And you wouldn’t pay to read it anyway. Maybe that’s Jane Q. Citizen’s ace in the hole: if we have to pay to use Facebook, we’ll drift away, and FB will cease to exist. So maybe big web companies like FB will fight for us. Right.
But what about all the little business people who have websites and depend on traffic to make a buck? They can’t afford to pay more…or may choose not to. I know a lot of “mommy bloggers” who blog about domestic issues, making their blogs so useful and helpful that they can actually earn money from ads placed on their sites.
Goodbye to all that, as well.
The new director of the FCC, Ajit Pai, is, like so many Trump appointees, hostile to the mission of the agency he was chosen to lead. He moved quickly to start this effort to dismantle consumer protections.
If you have a chance, please learn about this, talk it up, share, and object. This is yet one more area where we need to stand together for the common good. Common as in anybody not making $98 million a year from bleeding the little guy.
Here are some articles about it: http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/05/18/528941897/fcc-votes-to-begin-rollback-of-net-neutrality-regulations
https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/news/2017/05/18/fcc-votes-overturn-net-neutrality/101828412/
And now, back to our regular programming. For as long as it lasts.
The cable and satellite companies have already started by changing the lists and programming units to catch you off guard and charge you more if you suddenly find something you were watching on your current account is no longer available unless you “upgrade”. I looked it over, and decided to downgrade. They have ways to catch you there as well.
George, we have to be constantly vigilant. It’s exhausting at times.
Lynne, this is terrifying! In addition to so many other civil rights, now consumer rights must be added to list of rights in jeopardy under the under the present administration. I am passing this on because I don’t think most people are aware that on top of everything else we may be losing access to the net.
Actually, Pat, like everything else, you will enjoy life if you have a lot of money. You wouldn’t be losing access if you were one of the wealthy and privileged few. Because more and more that’s the only demographic that seems to matter anymore. And that’s what we have to wake up and start fighting back about.
“FCC just took the first step to canceling Net Neutrality.” This is such a huge and important issue, Lynne, and I’m afraid that most people are just now hearing about it! This is, as you say, motivated by the overwhelming greed of corporations—the force that is destroying the Western World, in my opinion! Thank you for your clear thinking! We all need to wake up and do what we can!
Thanks so much for amplifying my message, Diane. It is really really important. For all we know, these are the last of the good old days of a free and open internet.