an article from the New York Times 2 years into the future
THE INTERNET AFTER HAVING ITS FREEDOM RESTORED, TWO YEARS LATER
by Valerie Stencil
June 12, 2020
Roughly two years ago, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) repealed the Title II regulations of the internet under the Communications Act of 1934, most commonly known as Net Neutrality. It had been FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's mission since President Donald Trump had been elected to remove these restrictions, and support of this action was extremely varied. The American population was widely against it, as were nearly every internet company based in the United States. FCC Chairman Pai stated that the removal of Net Neutrality would be a boon for the internet as a whole; and would lead to innovation in internet technology, an increase in consumer choice as to internet service providers (ISPs), and offer better and faster internet access. His statements were met with much skepticism; as many believed the removal of Net Neutrality regulations towards ISP giants like Comcast and AT&T would stymie competition; allow ISPs to throttle websites that they did not favor; and even outright censor certain websites. This was all speculation two years ago. Though many could guess how the ISPs would act once the chains holding them back were released, no one knew for sure what exactly would happen. Now, two years later, there is but one question: Is the Internet better? The answer is: not really.
Consumers saw a 5% average increase in internet speeds overall, which is an improvement; however the United States' internet infrastructure still pales in comparison to other first world countries with internet access. On average, a citizen of the United States can expect to pay around 100 dollars for 75 megabits download speed and 20 megabits upload speed. Compared to United Kingdom citizens who would pay almost half of that price for the same speeds, or South Korean consumers who would get over 1 gigabit download and upload speeds for the same price. As for competition, there haven't been many new ISP companies popping up throughout the states after Net Neutrality's demise. Citizens living in the rural parts of the states still have very limited options when it comes to internet access. Frank Worthington, of Westhope, North Dakota, has only one option: AT&T. "Since I moved here back in 2001, internet access has always been a struggle," Worthington explains. "Right now, I pay $150 dollars and get probably 5 megabits download if I'm lucky. There isn't another ISP around here. It's either go through them or use my phone's wireless data; and that's not all that great, either." Mr. Worthington's cellular service, also through AT&T, is data capped at 5 gigabytes of data for the month. If he were to go over that data cap, he would be hit with a 20 dollar penalty for each gigabyte of data he goes over. Mr. Worthington's data isn't a unique one. Citizens across the country living in rural areas have reported little or no choice when it comes to internet access.
Several months after Net Neutrality was repealed, Comcast started rolling out "service packages" to their customers. These packages offered tiers of services instead of a flat rate for internet and the speeds a customer desired. Customers now were able to decide which aspects of the internet they felt they needed the most, instead of paying a flat rate for everything. In Comcast's case, four service packages are offered: Basic, allowing for internet access and web browsing; Preferred, offering everything Basic offers plus messaging and social media websites; Premier, which offers everything plus video and streaming services such as YouTube and Twitch; and Enthusiast, which offers Console and PC online gaming. These service packages proved to be beneficial toward so-called "light users" of the internet; such as Edna Rathbun of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Mrs. Rathbun utilizes Comcast's "Basic" service package for $29.99 a month; $10 less than she had been paying before Net Neutrality had been removed. Her son, Adam Rathbun, and his family aren't so fortunate.
Mr. Rathbun is subscribed to the Enthusiast service package, paying $189.99 a month in order for him and his family to use the internet for streaming video, movies, TV shows, online gaming, Facebook, Twitter, and a host of other services. Without such a service package, Mr. Rathbun and others who don't subscribe to these services would find that they cannot access these websites; or the bitrate of the sites is so slow as to make use of these sites effectively impossible. "Nothing really happened the first couple of months after they passed that bill or whatever," Mr. Rathbun began. "Then, I noticed that Comcast was sending information about these packages, and advertised them on their website. I ignored them at first. Then, my kids and even my wife started complaining that streaming on Netflix and playing online games was getting really slow. Even Facebook would take 30 seconds to a minute to load. So, I called Comcast and the representative told me we were on an old service plan and needed to upgrade. I tried the Premier package, but it just wasn't enough. I had to go to the Enthusiast plan; and it costs almost double what I was originally paying. It sucks, but we have to deal with it, I guess."
Do we have to deal with it? Even before Net Neutrality was repealed, state governments such as New York, Washington, Oregon, and New Jersey put into place laws that essentially replaced the federal Net Neutrality laws. Citizens living in these states have felt little or no change towards their internet access. Those not living in these states are finding themselves disgruntled at the shifting change towards an internet system that feels more like Cable TV. A movement on Twitter, #Toldyou, has users sending tweets to Congressmen, FCC officials, ISP executives, and government officials voicing their displeasure towards the repealing of Title II regulations. Of course, these people have to have the social media service package in order to do this; and whether their posts actually get to their representatives is another story. For now, as the Midterm Presidential Elections are looming; we can only sit and wait to see what the future holds, if anything.
