ISP’s current
dealings with the US government and the FCC have become a cause for great
concern regarding the future of internet quality and availability in the United
States. From the ruling that ISPs cannot be considered “common carriers”
earlier this year, to the FCC’s ruling against net neutrality, to the recent
merger of Comcast with Time Warner Cable, the state of the US’s internet
infrastructure is not looking particularly promising for the future.
With
the court ruling that established that broadband and mobile ISPs could not be
considered common carriers, the FCC lost most of its control over the dealings
of those corporations in regard to restrictions on access to the internet. This
means that the already established regulations on common carriers are not
relevant in regard to broadband internet service, so any potential issues will
have to be dealt with directly, rather than being interpreted from the current
laws.
The
merge of Comcast and TWC is a major hindrance to possible competition between
ISPs in the US. After the merger, the conglomeration leaves large sections of
the US population with literally no choice in broadband ISP, because TWC will
be the only provider available in their area. Obviously, when there is no
competition, then there is no incentive to invest in better quality or improve
pricing.
Just
after the outcry over the merge of the two largest broadband ISPs in the US,
the FCC made yet another ruling in their favor, allowing the prioritization of
preferred web users. Due to the lack of competition between ISPs, it is
unlikely that this will turn into any kind of price reduction for the average
internet user. What it does mean is that companies that provide services over
the internet, such as Netflix and Google, will be faced with higher fees for
internet usage. These fees will, of course, be passed on to the consumers of
those services.
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