What To Expect As Net Neutrality Fades Into The Distance

[Commentary] At the moment, 36 states and Washington (DC) have introduced efforts to keep network neutrality. These efforts range from introducing legislation to filing lawsuits. At the moment, it’s too early to tell if these suits will be successful and if states will be allowed to implement their own rules for broadband. Now, let’s say these suits were to fail, and the repeal of net neutrality continued to move forward as planned. What impact would this have on consumers? 

For companies like Verizon and Comcast, there’s a benefit to be had: the ability to prioritize their own content over that of their competitors. By using a neat tactic called zero-rating, where the use of certain services doesn’t count towards your data cap, broadband providers can redirect traffic that might have otherwise gone to, say, Netflix. On the face of it, the ability to stream unlimited content for no additional fee might sound like a benefit for consumers, but it does come with certain costs: for one thing, there’s no incentive for the carrier to provide a high-quality streaming experience, and there’s also no guarantee that those services will remain zero-rated in the long term. One thing’s for sure: Neither Internet service providers nor their opponents are going to go down without a fight.

[Alan Levy is the co-founder & CEO of Skywire Networks, one of the largest Fixed Wireless Broadband Providers in New York City.]