Johnny Everly
Ms. Phillips Composition II
03/14/2011
The Battle for Neutrality

The internet today is a global system of interconnected networks that serves billions of people worldwide. The internet is one of the most popular means for communication and information in the twenty-first century all over the world. Whether the internet is accessed from an office location, a home residence, a school, or even a mobile phone there is a connection being made with an Internet Service Provider (ISP). An Internet Service Provider maintains the infrastructure that allows different devices to be connected to networks that make the internet. As of today all information or “packets” are treated equally; and consumers pay for the connectivity of the interne. Some consumers pay for a faster connection rate, but do not get faster delivery for a specific type of content just faster for all types of information. This is why the internet today is vastly growing as one of the most popular innovations on the planet, all made possible by Net Neutrality. The argument that is going on states; that service providers can charge websites a fee for faster data transmission then others. Net neutrality states consumers should have access to lawful internet content; run applications and services of their choice; use equipment of their choice without interference from the provider.
In the argument on net neutrality it is stated that people should have access to lawful internet at any time. As it stands right now the internet providers’ job is to transmit packets of data, but not to choose which packets to give higher quality service. Major internet service providers such as AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner want to act as gatekeepers and decide which web sites would either load up fast or load slowly. These providers want to create an “express” lane for their own content or other services that is seen fit. For example if AT&T favored the Yahoo! Search engine over Google; the Yahoo! Search engine would load faster than Google. This doesn’t coincide with net neutrality simply because it does not give users the option to choose what services they would like to utilize, or what content they would like to view. Net neutrality makes a strong point that the internet needs to be an open and level playing field to drive innovation; a reason why the internet has flourished to this day.
With network neutrality consumers have the authority to choose what applications and services that they wish to use such as: using iTunes instead of using Zune, shopping on Amazon in comparison to Overstock or watching TV shows on Netflix instead of Hulu. In order to have Net neutrality there must be a level playing field and a choice for the consumer on which services and applications to use. In the Argument on net neutrality major service providers want to control what services are utilized with “their” internet spectrum. They claim that this would reduce the amount of spam and harmful websites that appear on today’s internet. While this is a valid point, in order for it to take place they would have to tax websites to be able to take the advantage. Thus creating a higher level of service that some of the smaller websites and corporations could simply not afford to take part. Forcing consumers to use certain applications goes against the principle of network neutrality, and so does controlling how people connect to the internet.
Another principle of Neutral Communication is about the freedom what equipment is chosen to access the internet, for example using a modem, a router, or even a mobile device. All of those are typically universal and can access the internet in a certain way from one provider to another. Network neutrality states that a consumer should be able to choose whether to use a modem to access the internet from one provider to the next. Network Providers will say that this is not a valid point simply because the difference in requirements for each provider; however if the equipment is compatible with both providers it should be able to access the internet in the same capacity without being throttled as if it were solely for the new supplier. This goes against the principles behind net neutrality.
In the recent presidential elections President Barack Obama stated “"I am a strong supporter of net neutrality… What you've been seeing is some lobbying that says that the servers and the various portals through which you're getting information over the Internet should be able to be gatekeepers and to charge different rates to different Web sites… And that I think destroys one of the best things about the Internet.” The argument on Net Neutrality makes several valid points as to protect and honor users choice to view content that they see fit, to use applications to their liking and to utilize any equipment that they see fit to access the internet.