Rhonda Abrams

[Commentary] If network neutrality goes away, you’ll almost certainly start paying more for all the many Internet-based services you depend on in your small business – VoIP (voice over Internet service), international calls, document storage, online payroll, e-mail newsletter service, your website hosting and credit-card processing. The reality is the Internet is now a critical backbone of our economy. It’s likely as critical to your business as electricity. For many companies, the Internet is now even more important than telephone services. It is appropriate to require Internet service providers, like electric companies, treat all customers equally in terms of quality of service.

So use your small business voice and let Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai, the FCC, and your senators and representatives know that you want – you need – to keep net neutrality for your small business.

[Rhonda Abrams is the author of “Entrepreneurship: A Real-World Approach,”]

[Commentary] The Federal Communications Commission is about to allow Internet providers to charge tolls for speedy access unless we raise our voices to get the agency to declare the Internet a "common carrier," infrastructure that must be open to all on an equal basis, just as telephones, television and railroads are.

This is a critical issue for small businesses and start-ups. But the deadline for public comments is July 14.

If you, like me, want the FCC to require Internet companies to treat small businesses equally, then contact the agency and urge them to classify the Internet as a common carrier. If Internet service providers are allowed to have a fast lane for those who pay a premium and if the fairness of this policy is decided on a case-by-case basis, start-ups and small businesses would have to challenge each discriminatory practice -- an unreasonable and expensive burden.