Network Neutrality, Open Letter to the FCC

Net neutrality is a fundamental principal of the Internet and should be defended. ISPs herding users to sites of their choosing is a gross abuse of their power.

My ISP is a pipe of information delivered to my home. I pay for a pipe that is capable of carrying a certain amount of bandwidth each month (both in terms of speed and total amount of data). My ISP has the right to control both the speed and total data that flows through these pipes and establish a contract with me for this service but their rights end there.

The Internet is home to a great many startup companies who capitalized on the low barrier to entry and level playing field of the Internet to compete with larger established companies. This disruptive behavior has led to rapid iteration and innovation, which has benefited the market as a whole. Allowing larger, established companies to receive preferential treatment from ISPs will insulate them from startup organizations. This protection will lead to stagnation, which is detrimental to the Internet as a whole.

In addition to not controlling Internet traffic via prioritized speed for certain traffic, ISPs should not be permitted to exclude sources from monthly bandwidth totals. This is another form of traffic prioritization that is anathema to the open nature of the Internet and results in the same disastrous outcomes outlined above.

I encourage you to reclassify ISPs as Title II common carriers. The Internet has grown significantly and become an integral part of our lives since the FCC 2002 ruling classifying Internet Access an “information service” and with these changes the rules that govern access to it must change, as well. While I prefer minimal government regulation, to allow ISPs to control the flow of information without serious oversight would be an injustice to the Internet as a whole and the citizens of the United States who rely upon it.

Sal Ferrarello (@salcode)

Sal is a PHP developer with a focus on the WordPress platform. He is a conference speaker with a background including Piano Player, Radio DJ, Magician/Juggler, Beach Photographer, and High School Math Teacher. Sal can be found professionally at WebDevStudios, where he works as a senior backend engineer.