Sanders Media

Broadband has truly reached mass appeal. We are now seeing issues come up that we never could have imagined 5 years ago. With the prevalence of video and audio online, bandwidth has become a hot topic. To deal with the burden on their networks, some ISP’s are putting caps on usage. Users may now face the prospect of rationing their internet use. 

Currently, the country’s second largest broadband ISP is Comcast. In this article in the recent issue of Wired magazine, Daniel Roth talks about how they are trying to rebuild their image. Comcast’s reputation was dragged through the mud after it was revealed they were slowing down the connections of customers who were using large amounts of bandwidth without telling them. What followed was a very public repudiation from the FCC.

That incident brought forth an interesting question. Do we have a right to internet access, or is it simply an extra in our budget? In other words, is it a utility or a luxury? Utility is defined as the state of being useful or beneficial. Luxury is defined as the state of great comfort and extravagant living. Initially we considered the internet to be a novelty. A source of entertainment. Now we use it for everything from shopping to government services. Can it still be thought of as a nonessential?

I think it would be in the best interest of everyone involved to enhance our existing network infrastructure, rather than cut usage. Instead of curtailing innovation, the ISP’s need to create an environment that fosters it. They only stand to gain. Let’s hope they understand this.

I usually try to keep this space free of hot button topics. Here I like to discuss things that help you understand how the web works in a practical way. However, the more the web expands into our lives, the more these issues come to the forefront. I’ll touch on a couple.

One such hot button topic that has been bantered about is internet filtering. Certain sections of the US government, as well as a large portion of the telecommunications industry, want the ability to force an ISP (Internet Service Provider) to divulge our internet habits. They say this can help them root out terrorists, stop child pornography and stop sharing of copyrighted materials.

These seem like noble ideals, and they are in their simplest form. My fear, however, is there will be a compromise of our privacy. The right to privacy is a very American one, and a right we must defend rigorously. I fear the temptation to use this information in ways we can’t comprehend and wouldn’t approve of will be too great. I cannot condone large organizations (governments, corporations, etc.) with seemingly endless resources being able to spy on me.

Another big issue recently in the news is internet throttling. Internet throttling is the practice of slowing down the connection speeds of users taking up a lot of bandwidth. An example would be people who upload large amounts of video to the web.

The ISP’s call this practice reasonable network maintenance. They claim these users are slowing down connections for everyone else and are overloading the network. Whether or not this is true is up for debate. Comcast just received a stinging rebuke from the FCC for throttling users without their knowledge. Instead of stopping internet throttling altogether, they are now just being upfront about it.

This is a Pandora’s Box. Once we allow some content to be blocked or inhibited, where do we draw the line? Deregulation has put the power in fewer and fewer hands. The FCC rebuke aside, there has been very little in the form of accountability. The telecommunications industry is a very powerful lobby, and has large resources available to petition our government. We need checks and balances to make sure our rights and freedoms are observed.

Wherever you stand in the political realm, these are issues that have and will continue to affect you. I encourage you to contact your US and state representatives. Ask them where they stand on these issues, and if they plan to protect your privacy.