We need to protect the open Internet
Tell FCC: Don’t let “pay to play” break the Internet
by Dave Cole
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is about to create an Internet “pay to play” scheme to give major corporations and big business unprecedented control of the Internet.
That means that giants like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon and others-- the same corporations who have a near monopoly over our digital lives and businesses-- will be able to buy their way to an even larger share of market control, snuffing out competition and holding back innovative new business models and creative content producers.
Chairman Wheeler wants to allow big Internet providers to charge websites for faster content delivery, setting up a pay-to-play fast lane. We don’t allow pay to play anywhere else in society-- the Internet, the backbone of our current and future economy is no place to start.
This undermines a key tenet of net neutrality, the principle that “Internet service providers and governments should treat all data on the Internet equally, not discriminating or charging differentially by user, content, site, platform, application, type of attached equipment, and modes of communication.”
Net neutrality is the reason you can watch a citizen journalist reporting on a small blog with the same quality and accessibility as mainstream reporting on a popular news website-- or stream an Independent film as easily as a Hollywood blockbuster. Think of this in contrast to premium cable services, which are completely rigid and all content channels are determined by the cable companies, based on what content producers are able to pay.
The FCC’s pay-to-play fast lane threatens to make the Internet a lot more like what you get from an old cable box.
This means content providers like Netflix have to pay ransom to Internet providers to make their videos available at the fastest speeds. Meanwhile, content from other innovative websites and small businesses who can’t afford to pay will be drowned out. Once websites begin paying fast lane fees to the Internet providers, the extra cost will likely get passed on to consumers as higher subscription fees.
By making money off of access as well as premiums on content, the big Internet providers will make the Internet feel a lot more like a fancy cable subscription, and a lot less like an equal playing field where everyone has a voice.
We’re number… 30ish
Americans already pay way too much for way too slow Internet service. In many rural and suburban areas, Internet access looks the same as it did in the ‘90s, while profits for these giant companies have never been higher.
We are leaving the crucial investments we need in infrastructure to deliver the fastest Internet connections in the hands of profit-maximizing corporations. Consequently, these companies have an economic interest in building out fiber networks where it’s most profitable -- affluent, dense urban areas, leaving out poor and rural areas where the opportunities of a robust digital connection could have an even greater social benefit. Think about it -- where do you live and how many affordable high speed Internet options do you really have?
Across the world, other countries are investing in true high speed Internet by building fiber optic networks. Faster than copper cable or phone lines, fiber provides a true broadband connection. In the United States, fiber networks are a virtual monopoly owned by Verizon through its FIOS service, with some experimental services like Google Fiber in the mix. US cities rank somewhere around number 30 in value for broadband Internet, and a true high speed fiber connection in New York City will cost you nearly 10 times what it costs in Seoul, South Korea, for half the speed ($299.99 vs $31.47)! Of course, this kind of connection is not even available in most of our country.
Bad for Business
In addition to squeezing more money out of consumers for less speed and unequal delivery of content, abandoning net neutrality is just plain bad for business. All those smaller websites are going to have to compete against Netflix, Youtube, Amazon, and the other well-funded giants of Internet media. Even those giants are going to need to pay more to distribute their content. Everyone except the Internet service providers are losing out in this deal.
It doesn’t stop at video. Once net neutrality is out the window, we could see the auctioning off of all types of content. Like Google search over Bing? Well (hypothetically) Microsoft paid more to Comcast, so Bing’s going to load a lot faster. Prefer the fast and beautiful, ad-free Mapbox maps to Google’s? Better hope Verizon doesn’t start bidding for a preferred mapping platform.
Buying the Internet
The Internet is under attack, because the government, specifically, the FCC commissioners and Congress, are allowing the big Internet service providers to buy it from the people.
As the Center for Public Integrity reports, “Three Internet service providers were among the top 20 lobbying spenders in the first nine months of 2013. Combined they hired more than 350 lobbyists, 14 of whom were former members of Congress.” Moreover, “the total from these broadband providers and their association surpassed $55 million in the first nine months of 2013.” Here are those who are buying our free and open Internet:
• Comcast Corp., the nation’s largest cable operator, spent almost $14 million during the period, the fifth-largest amount of all corporate lobbying spending, and hired 98 lobbyists, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler is a former President and CEO of the National Cable Telecommunications Association.
• AT&T Inc. hired 89 lobbyists and spent $12.3 million, ranking it 11th among the top spenders.
• Verizon Communications Inc., the plaintiff in the suit against the FCC, came in at No. 17 with $10.1 million in spending, hiring 96 lobbyists.
• Also among the top lobbying spenders is the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, which includes Comcast and Time Warner Cable Inc. as members. NCTA spent $13.3 million in the first nine months of 2013, ranking it ninth among the top spending lobbyists, according to CRP
Fighting for an open Internet
I’ve spent my career in technology, working at the White House as a senior advisor for technology and joining early on at a new tech start up company. Now I’m running for Congress. We need to elect people who understand how technology works and what’s at stake for our personal lives and economy, and who will fight to protect an open Internet.
Districts like mine in South Jersey, with large suburban and rural populations stand to lose the most in these deals. Internet access is often controlled by a single provider. Lack of competition leaves families, schools, and small businesses lagging behind without the tools to compete.
I will be the leading voice in Congress for Internet users, content providers small and large, the makers and creators-- all of us-- against an urgent and growing threat from big Internet providers who seek to consolidate power and lobby us out of one of the most democratic innovations of all time.
Please fight with me, and sign on to my petition:
FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, stand up for consumers against big corporations like Comcast, AT&T, and Verizon, by rejecting a pay to play “fast lane.” The FCC should take immediate action to classify broadband Internet as a public utility, not a luxury, preserving a free and open Internet for everyone.
Watch Susan Crawford explain net neutrality and the solutions for protecting the open Internet, via Vox.com.
Follow us on Twitter: @DaveColeNJ
Like us on Facebook: Dave Cole for Congress
Sign up for email updates: ColeForCongress.com
And please contribute to Dave's campaign here.
