The internet is a smaller imprint of the actual world. It carries all the information in the world and displays it in front of you, choosing of your like, with few fingers away. It is a door to everything that unlocks vast knowledge, entertainment, information and what not. Net neutrality stands on the principle that ISP would allow gateway to all subjects and web-applications irrespective of the source, instead of prioritizing or stopping certain items or websites. In simple terms, no internet traffic has importance over another, allowing consumers freely explore the internet. How cruel it sounds, but there is certainly a hanging sword at the head of net neutrality, meaning to say it is on the verge of losing the hard fought battle against “Big Money” that ISP’s are adding into.
In detailed version of it, Net neutrality is all about the quest for free access to the web services of the vast internet which is not limited by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) or authority on the substance, websites and the existing podium. Though, it serves as a huge drawback for the ISPs, making it a constantly targeted and bombarded concept. Rather than choosing sides or talking about the lost war, let’s analyze the future without net neutrality and the advantages it brings that we will miss for sure.
Prioritizing the Internet and the Shut Doors
While accessing websites, you might have noticed that some of the websites get loaded faster while others take some time, like the example of bit torrent. You will find more often than not bit torrent download of an open-source software is very slow. Thanks to your ISPs; they are often responsible for filtering your usage from their side in order to decrease the stack which is draining their bandwidth. One of the major reasons that this is happening, as it has been evident that bit-torrent is a very common protocol, which uses, as much as fifty percent of internet traffic alone.
Ultimately, ISP’s in order to bring down their bandwidth cost and reduce traffic, they will trim down the internet-speed of these sites. Usually, Internet Service Providers implement the Quality of Service (QoS) in order to mark important packets high priority and leave their routers first. They will differentiate the various types of packets, and analyze the packets to list down the significance of the given packet.
The Lost Profit
Web users are permitted to link to whichever internet site or service of their choice. ISP’s should not have any sort of problem with the type of content that is rolling from the servers. That is the exact thing which defines internet as a truly global network. It also allows users to freely express themselves. Let’s take a look at some advantages that we will miss with the vanishing of net neutrality.
Limitless: Today internet is limitless, in a sense that the only restrictions come from whatever local government puts on. For example, there are no limitations or priorities over-mailing, file transferring, real time messaging, Voice-over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Video Conferencing, Podcasts, articles, Really Simple Syndication feeds and USENET etc.
No Throttling: In the recent times, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are not allowed to alter the download or upload transfer rates and monitor the particular websites.
Free of Censorship: Users are free to upload the content without any censorship or monitoring, the only factors which get affected is connection rates.
A Symbol of Free Market: Net Neutrality is all about a level playing ground for rival businesses; it offers the new entrants simpler ways to reach new potential customers. Net Neutrality is a symbol of a free market.
Capitalism: Net neutrality offers competitive market and delivers the chance to each business, from large business to new startups to take part in it.
Better Future Prospects: Consider that net was not neutral, and then the likes of Google, Facebook or Zomato could not achieve the success upon which they have built on. For better future prospects, net neutrality is the key.
Beyond Net Neutrality
Let’s hear another side of the story, there is an umber amount of situation in which we all should agree that ISPs or local government should be allowed to handle various kinds of traffic unevenly while increasing some of the speeds and trimming down others. Consider a specific network connection that is mobbed, a very common situation, with mobile data and the network routing facilities of ISPs are connected with each other’s networks. Let’s list down some of the future scenarios we will have to face with net neutrality out of the picture.
Roadblock in the Development Cycle: Service companies are only resistant to the applications and equipment which can change a slower uploading rate to a faster rate. Most of these applications and equipment are introduced for theft purposes.
Monitoring an easy Access to Certain Materials: It can be said that the majority of people will oppose the loss of net neutrality, but even they will put their hand down while addressing some issues. One of the major objections of net neutrality is that easy access to some objectionable materials, hate sites, and high chances for kids to be exposed to the content that is granted for adults only.
Stopping Illegal use: Bandwidth which is available with a restrained commodity and guidelines will aid in limiting illegal use of this platform. With little prioritization or constraint is vital to back the best attention of buyers as a whole.
So all considered, we can safely say that with advantages net neutrality brings to the table, there is a little bit of scope where we can look beyond net neutrality and move on. Yet we hope it stays, so we all can move towards a perfect future ahead of us.
