Goodbye Net Neutrality; Hello Google, Facebook, and SpaceX
The Internet cannot evolve sustainably if each new American President can meddle with it via regulation.
In 2014 I wrote that Florida’s Energy Policy Illustrates the Downside to Net Neutrality and that by treating the Internet as a utility we might slow innovation in delivering the Internet. The same way electric companies have fought solar initiatives we could expect legacy telecoms to fight disruptive new Internet access.
This week the F.C.C. has announced plans to repeal Net Neutrality under the continued deregulation agenda of the Trump administration. Without Net Neutrality cable companies will likely raise prices for Internet access in the short-term but considering efforts by Google, Facebook and SpaceX to provide widespread wireless Internet access those rate hikes will short lived.
The Internet has grown larger and more important than any one nation-state like the United States and exponentially more than the U.S. telecom industry. From Wikipedia and streaming video to Facebook communities and Amazon orders, a free and open Internet is a market requirement.
Therefore similar to the the U.S. pulling out of the Paris Agreement, the repeal of Net Neutrality will simply incentivize the private sector. The Internet cannot evolve sustainably if each new American President can meddle with it via regulation. The future providers of Internet services will not be today’s telecoms but rather the technology innovators that plan to bypass the “last mile” of cables that hold U.S. consumers hostage to a dying industry.
Having cut the cable a few years ago I must still pay a telecom an inflated price for my Internet. The repeal of Net Neutrality will provide a safe haven for telecoms to squeeze a shrinking consumer base, simultaneously creating strong demand for better services. I welcome cable’s death knell from Net Neutrality’s repeal and look forward to choosing between Google, Facebook, and SpaceX in the near future.
