In case you've been hiding under a rock...with no internet, then you may not know what Net Neutrality entails. In short, it's goal was to prohibit internet service providers (ISP) from influencing loading speeds for specific websites and/or apps. The idea was to treat it more as a utility, like water and gas. Unfortunately, today the FFC voted to repeal Net Neutrality and was successful.
Speculating what ISPs will do next is easy, but how soon will we see a change? Although Net Neutrality has been repealed, it's still up to the individual states to set local rules and regulations. Since this is the case, it will likely take a good while before we see any changes. States will start addressing the situation and ISPs, provided they do pull these evil plans that everyone expects them to, will need time to concoct their dastardly plans.
As gamers, we use the internet for just about everything. Playing online, downloading games, streaming live, watching people stream live, using cloud storage, etc. We'll need to see how it all plays out now. Whatever your political leaning is, I think we can all agree that this doesn't bold well. It's not about what party or sex is to blame. That's right, people are blaming women in the FCC because majority of the votes were from women.
It's easy to get salty or tilted about this, but creating blame like this is childish and best left to the mainstream media. In reality, it has been done. No one person, party or sex is to blame. Ajit Pai seems to be a puppet for a bigger head. One person can't make this happen. Although he may be the most hated man on the internet right now, we should focus on how to work with our own states to protect your rights locally. This is part of the reason we here in America, don't put all the control in the federal governments hands.
Marijuana legalization is another example. States still have the ability to set local rules and regulations. If you are wondering on how to work with your state, take 5-10 min and go to your states government website. Do some quick research and connect with them. If Net Neutrality is important to you, than it's also important to connect with them. There's no telling where things will be 1 year from now, but we'll have to wait and see. One thing is for certain, ISPs should have the same anti-monopoly rules applied to them as they apply to cellular carriers, but that's another monster we'll have to tackle as well.
Thoughts
Is there any way that this could work in our favor? How do you think this will change your bill or internet usage? Will this spark more a more competitive market for ISPs, or will it become an even larger monopoly?
