Net neutrality is the pursuit of an open access to the networks of the internet that is not restricted by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) or government on the content, sites and platform available. However, it is mostly disadvantage for the ISPs thus getting it implemented is a problem. As for end users, I am going to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of net neutrality on end users and conclude if its advantages out weigh disadvantages.
Have you ever wondered why your downloads are always so slow when you have already subscribed to the fastest internet service available in your area? Why is your bit torrent download of open source software slow too? Well it may be that your ISP might be doing some form of filtering to your traffic at their end to lower the load that is straining their bandwidth. According to a research in february 2009, bit torrent is the most commonly used protocol and it accounts for 27-55% of all internet traffic.
Therefore, in order for ISP to keep their bandwidth cost and load down, they would have to throttle the speed of these services. To do that, ISP will have to implement the Quality of Service (QoS) to ensure that important packets are marked as priority and leave their routers first. To differentiate the different kinds of packets, ISPs have to analyse the packets to determine the importance of the packet.
The argument on net neutrality is that we should receive the certain level of service that we subscribed for. Some one else on the internet with the same subscribed service should receive the same level of service regardless of the types of data transfered between the two of us. All data streams should flow through as fast as possible and not be discriminated. By inspecting the packets and prioritizing the important services and lower other’s priority, they are being discriminated and short charged to the end user.
As a matter of fact, Google is actively advocating net neutrality. In a letter published in summer of 2006, Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt, encouraged users to actively participate in the debate in net neutrality and mentioned that “Creativity, innovation and a free and open marketplace are all at stake in this fight.”
So what are the advantages worth fighting for for end users?
Advantages:
1. No restrictions on content access on the internet
2. Consistent internet access speed on all contents on the internet
3. Privacy not invaded
4. Do not have to pay premium price for content deemed “premium” by ISPs
Disadvantages:
1. Users will have to pay more for internet services as ISP will pass on the cost of more bandwidth purchased to ensure they are not stretched.
2. Slower internet access speed if the ISPs are unable to have more bandwidth to handle the increased load.
3. Increase in high latency and high jitter rate due to insufficient bandwidth which would make Voice Over IP perform poorly
From my point of view, I felt that the disadvantages for end-user mostly depends on the ISP to improve the situation. If the ISP have no problem handling the load, I believe the subscribers will not have a problem paying a little more for a unrestricted internet. With bandwidth problem out of the window, Its only disadvantage is the higher price for end-users and it makes net neutrality more likely to be accepted by end-users. Over time as the cost of bandwidth get cheaper, the subscription cost of the internet will come down too.
On the other hand, it is hard to convince end-user to support net neutrality if the disadvantages after implementation could not be sorted out.
Ultimately, end-users will suffer if the internet services are unreliable.