Net Neutrality FCC Rules Explained
If you work in any extension of the telecommunications industry, FCC (Federal Communications Commission) net neutrality has probably been on your radar since FCC commissioners began discussing the issue early in 2010. A theoretical attempt to eliminate discrimination between large and small digital content providers, net neutrality has exploded into a hot button topic for marketers, internet service providers, and consumers of digital content across the nation.
Given the ferocity of the internet’s growth, it’s easy to become confused with who owns what and what all these new “rules” really mean for consumers and businesses investing in future digital ventures. According to an interview aired last week by CNBC business reporter Julia Boorstin, Tuesday’s FCC ruling announced the communication organization’s plan to begin regulating internet content (i.e.- Internet service providers like Comcast, Time Warner, and Cable Vision will soon be able to bill internet users based on how much bandwidth they use while accessing data).
Before now, service providers were billing customers and businesses based on the speed of their internet connection. Because everyone has come to rely on readily available high-speed internet access, organizations like the FCC would like to move toward a “tiered system” in which users are billed based on how much internet they used (to state it plainly). As it stands now, internet service providers will see financial gain while content creators and aggregators (i.e.- those copy writers, social media commentators, and search services that stream bandwidth sucking data like video) will have to pay providers more to disseminate their content. According to a cross section of statements made by FOX News, Google, CNBC, and Wired Magazine, all of this could spell serious, long-term consequences for the communications industry: affecting the speed of search results and the material which people can afford to post and retrieve.
This is not a cut and dry issue for search engine marketing has become a marketing power house and a small business staple, and will theoretically be greatly changed by the FCC’s new regulations. Google, who has become the internet authority for millions, warned users in 2006 of the impending danger of increased government control stating, “They [the government] want to build a two-tiered system and block the on-ramps for those who can’t pay.”
Precedence for internet regulation is all but non-existent at this point. Similar however, was the FCC’s implementation of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which sought to increase competition among phone service providers and decrease the power of the AT&T monopoly. Using the telephony realm of communication as an example, continued revision of the new, purposefully broad rules will also be necessary for broadband. Stay tuned into McCauley Marketing Services’ social media channels, website, and blog as we follow this burgeoning subject’s development (and its effects).