596Net Neutrality Rules to become Law of the Land
posted on October 8th, 2009
formalize net neutrality rules and give them the force of law, so that they have increased restrictive value. The motive behind this latest move is to free the market from the excessive control of the ISPs, who presently decide the content users can have access to and the price for the same.
The debate on net neutrality, though not new to this industry, has not affected the growth of the internet, which according to David L. Cohen of Comcast is ample proof that there is no need for exercising any such control. Cohen remarked that this new attempt of the FCC is actually a solution to a non-existent problem. Dylan Tweney of Wired feels that such laws will actually harm the users indirectly. His argument is that in order to offset the financial loss caused by net neutrality laws, service providers will stop flat rate access and start introducing broadband caps.
It is true that irrespective of the debate over rules, the internet market is in the tight grip of these service providers, which gives them the freedom to decide on both the content that users can access as well as the price of availing such service. This control of the ISPs is arguably more prominent in the American market than in the UK. For an insight into the UK ISP’s, take look at a dedicated broadband comparison website for an overall comparison of the broadband providers offers and performance.
