Net Neutrality Why You Should Want It
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Net Neutrality Why You Should Want It

If you spend a fair amount of time online, you may have come across the term “net neutrality.” For some, it’s no big deal. Others don’t even understand the internet and think it’s nonsense. Still others want to stop it, citing “bandwidth issues”. I am here to tell you why you need to put pressure on your congressmen and congressmen to get this concept into law.

In its simplest form, net neutrality means that an ISP, Internet Service Providers like AT&T and Comcast, should not have the ability to distinguish one form of online data from another, as long as it is of legal content. So a YouTube video, a Google search, and music streaming should all be treated the same, as well as two different videos or two video sites. However, these ISPs have said very similar things to Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska:

[…] They want to deliver large amounts of information over the Internet. And again, the Internet is not something you just pour something into. It’s not a big truck. It is a series of successes. And if you don’t understand that those tubes can fill up and if they do fill up, when you put your message in, it lines up and anyone who puts huge amounts of material in that tube, huge amounts of material, is going to slow you down.”

To begin to destroy this argument against net neutrality, some education is necessary.

First, we need to understand how the Internet works conceptually. In its crudest form, the Internet is nothing more than thousands of transmissions of 1’s and 0’s at once from one computer to another. However, this data, especially for large files like video, is broken up into what are called packets. They are sent this way over literally thousands of miles of cable from the computer you are on to yours, where all the packets are put back together. For streaming content, this is done in sequential order, so you can watch the beginning of the video while the rest is still downloading. For other files, this is not true, such as with software downloads, where random bits are sent at a time. However, due to minute delays between sending packets from one point to another, it is literally possible to send thousands of packets from different sources at roughly the same time. Yes, they move through the “tubes” one at a time, but they never actually stop, as explained below.

There is no single route from any server to yours. There are literally an almost infinite number of paths. Throughout the vast (and literal) network of wires, there are specific router points that, much like telephone routers, decide how to send your data to you. So, in theory, if you got “stuck” on a track, you would get off that track and go somewhere else. I have been using the internet for over a decade and have never seen anything slow because I was “waiting in line”.

In short: all data is in packets. It’s not a question of the “size” of a packet, it still moves at the same speed as all other packets, be it an IM packet, an email packet, etc. There are many ways to reach your destination.

Let’s also learn that most current Internet cables (not tubes) that connect are moving data at the speed of light through fiber optic cables, which transmit information into light in a style similar to Morse Code. Granted, each specific cable can only move one packet at a time, but due to the speed of light factor (FYI, the speed of light is 299,792,458 m/s and the circumference of the Earth is 40 075 160 miles, so this information can go around the world almost seven times per second continuously) it is basically possible to send multiple files at once over the same cable. It can’t “obstruct” light because it never stops moving, and because of this speed, it can basically send a lot of files at once because as soon as one packet is sent, another is sent immediately after, at 299,792,458 m/s.

There are really two factors that slow load times, which have nothing to do with your ISP: the server and you. You can slow down by using all the allocated bandwidth. Well, you never really get your full Mbps anyway, and every US ISP I know of offers unlimited bandwidth in terms of general streaming, but if you used all of, say, a full 6 Mpbs at once, that would give you would slow down down. The server from where you get your web pages and everything can only handle so many requests at a time. So if a million people access a YouTube video at once, it will load slowly while the physical box works to deliver the same movie to everyone. Most of the time this is the number one cause of “slow” Internet. (see the Digg effect)

Now, armed with that knowledge, let’s see what ISPs want you to think: They believe that larger files deserve to be on a “special” cable line for you. It was compared to a turnpike in a propaganda video that circulated on the Internet about a year ago. It has been mentioned in some of the Pro-Net Neutrality videos. Large files, represented by trucks, take up more “space” and get in the way of other things like emails. So if they restructure the way the Internet works, they can create a special “fast lane” for larger files, and basically tier the Internet so that each type of data gets its own lane. Now here’s the rub: That would cost a lot of money, not just in the software to manage all of that (which doesn’t exist as far as I know), but in the cabling to supposedly support all of that. To cover the cost (even though they report daily earnings of $150 million), they would probably charge everyone differently and more. So those of us who enjoy wasting hours watching the next Numa Numa kid on YouTube would pay more than someone who just wants to check their email. Players, especially WoW addicts, consume a ton of bandwidth and will most likely be charged more. Sounds like a fair trade, right?

What you forget is that high- and low-level content is so intermingled that it’s getting harder and harder to live without it. My friends email me YouTube links all the time. There are three types of content at the same time. There are tricky Flash ads on new movie sites that even play trailers. How do you order that? We also know that all data is essentially the same. It takes longer to download a larger file vs. a smaller one due to the number of packages. However, it never “clogs” a specific track when you are downloading a file. There are hundreds of other files that mix with yours and travel with them from various places.

Now, some speculation: there is no provision in any ISP contract that says they have to pass all kinds of content. So let’s say everyone starts telling everyone who has a website (including me) that we have to pay them $1.2 million a year to be seen by their customers. Each. So I would pay Verizon, Tmobile, Comcast and others 1.2 million a year each so that all of their customers could see me. Yes, they can legally do it as is without Net Neutrality legislature. Do you think the site you’re looking at could afford that? I know my site failed. Google and Yahoo could, but what would they do with the literally millions of small sites out there for niche groups? Where would all the little forums of friends with common interests go? Better yet, what if your ISP signs an agreement with Yahoo that no matter the money, they won’t let you use Google? Goodbye GoogleTalk. Goodbye Google Earth. See you iGoogle. Hello monopolized.

it’s legal. They are a private company and they can discriminate any site they want. There is no protection against discrimination like there is with people. In my personal network, if I don’t want my kids to see porn sites, I have the right to block them. ISPs can do the same. We are your personal network.

They can filter content. China has the “Great Firewall of China” to show that it can block everything from Google searches to specific websites. That’s why we have to act NOW. If we don’t do it, there is a legal measure called “ex post facto” which means that they could not be penalized for doing it before the law prohibiting it was enacted. government’s quick legal system (note the sarcasm), how long would it take to stop them?

So what can you do to help? Most of the usual – I would suggest going to SaveTheInternet.com and finding the information for your congressman. Send them an email, letter, or phone call saying you don’t agree with ISPs deciding what’s best for you to watch. Remind them that China censors their Internet and that their government is their ISP. Do we want to be like a communist nation? Yes, that will scare them. The truth is scary like that.

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