What do you mean by net neutrality? The idea of net neutrality revolves around the concept that internet service providers should give equal treatment to all data on the internet. These service providers should not make any discrimination or make differential charges. They should not take resort to this differential treatment on the basis of platform, application, content or modes of communication. This category covers intentional slowing down of data, blocking or excess charging for specific websites. Government mandate sometimes may enforce this principle.
Reflections from the past
In the past several instances have shown where internet service providers have used forged packets so that uploads from peer to peer file sharing have slowed down. Quite a few telecommunication companies have been accused of throttling the services. Users had come to this conclusion when they observed a significant slowing down of the videos. These companies have justified their actions on the ground that all the steps were taken as part of the network testing process. According to these organizations, these steps were made by following the principles of net neutrality.
- Discrimination by protocol
The blocking of information on the basis of various aspects of the communication protocol falls in this category.
- Discrimination by IP address
Sometimes the service providers charge more fees from companies for the traffic caused by them during peak hours. As part of the internet censorship program, deep packet installation makes data discrimination possible.
- Favoring private protocols
In the absence of regulations, an internet service provider can endorse specific protocols and cite infringement of bandwidth principles for others.
- Fast loading websites
It is generally observed that online consumers have low tolerance to slow loading websites. If the webpage fails to load most of the consumers instantly will move on to others sites.
Regulatory steps taken by the government
The objective of net neutrality is to ensure equal access to data offered by broadband providers without any discrimination concerning materials. Circumstances should not be such that you are compelled to buy video streaming services. Some governments went in for regulation of internet services. A vast majority of the people immensely backed them. Just like some of the public utility services such as water, gas and electricity are regulated by the governmental agencies steps were taken to impose restrictions on the power of these internet service providers. The aim of the government in these cases is to regulate the options offered by the providers.
Effect of repealing the rules
If net neutrality is gone, then preference will be given to those internet service providers who will pay more compared to others. It will become all the more challenging for new business organizations to develop because the internet service providers will now be able to exert more control over the sites visited by the consumers.
