The Court of Appeals for the D.C. circuit has effectively killed net neutrality in the U.S., striking down a 2010 Federal Communications Commission plan to block ISPs from playing favorites among websites.
For example, the major ISPs (not including Comcast that has to adhere to net neutrality rules until 2018), can now throttle speeds for services or websites based on whatever reasons they want. Many traffic hogs like torrent site, cyberlockers and streaming services like Netflix and Hulu Plus are likely going to be the big losers with the decision.
"AT&T, Verizon, and Comcast will be able to deliver some sites and services more quickly and reliably than others for any reason," telecommunications lawyer Marvin Ammori says (via WaPo). "Whim. Envy. Ignorance. Competition. Vengeance. Whatever. Or, no reason at all."
The telecom companies, most notably Verizon, AT&T, Charter and Time Warner all claim that no net neutrality will allow them to better service all customers. Of course, this is untrue, as the ISPs have been already been caught throttling traffic from video services that competed with their own.
Of course, you are free to change your ISP if they throttle your favorite services, if you are one of the few Americans that isn't trapped in a monopoly.
Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 14 Jan 2014 22:01
