You’re probably familiar with your electric bill. You get charged for what you use, not how you use it. Alaska Electric Light and Power doesn’t care whether you have a drill press in your garage, a server farm in your basement, or an herb garden under some heavy-duty lights.
What matters is the meter on the wall.
Since the creation of the internet, the federal government has required your internet provider to treat all internet traffic equally. Your internet company is not allowed to charge you differently for what you do with your internet, and they’re not allowed to slow down or speed up particular traffic.
They’re certainly allowed to charge you more if you use more, but they’re not allowed to charge you more if you use it for video games instead of streaming video, or for running your own web server. It’s the meter on the wall that matters.
That’s the principle of net neutrality, and that principle is about to change.
On Tuesday, FCC chairman Ajit Pai said the FCC will vote on whether to do away with neutrality.
If that principle goes away, we’re frightened by the possibilities.
The internet is a critical and indispensable part of life. We pay our bills online. We access government services online. We learn about the world and get our news online. We shop and live our lives online.
Without net neutrality, all of that would be affected. We will give telecommunications companies the ability to completely control what we see and do on the Internet.
You probably enjoy Netflix. Maybe you enjoy it so much that you’ve canceled your cable TV subscription.
Without net neutrality, GCI could slow or stop your Netflix streams to encourage you to re-subscribe to cable TV. We’re picking on GCI here because ACS, Verizon and AT&T, Alaska’s other big internet providers (through cellphones and land lines), don’t offer TV.
Let’s offer another example.
Last year, GCI spent millions of dollars to support a political action group that urged cuts to the Permanent Fund Dividend to solve part of the state’s budget crisis. It’s a controversial topic, which is why the Alaska Legislature has had so many problems with it.
Without net neutrality, could GCI block or slow access to opponents of its idea? Might it even slow or block access to the signup page for the Permanent Fund Dividend?
It’s possible in this new world.
Do you think it’s appropriate for a corporation to be in a position to restrict your access to public information and public services?
We don’t.
The Empire has talked with ACS and GCI about this topic before, and their spokespeople have always promised to keep open access to internet in Alaska.
We don’t doubt their sincerity, but we do doubt that their promises are worth much.
Earlier this year, for example, GCI was sold to a Colorado-based conglomerate, Liberty Interactive. We fully expect GCI’s practices to change in the coming years under this new Outside ownership. A promise made today isn’t binding tomorrow, which is why we need regulation to hold GCI and other companies accountable.
Alaska’s Congressional delegation should intervene, and we think you might agree.
The FCC has already received more than 22 million public comments on the issue, but it now appears to have made up its mind.
It’s up to Congress to prevent the coming disaster, and it’s up to you to tell Congress what to do.
