[extoc]
Niche Markets
In addition, there are multiple niche providers which create a filtered internet on behalf of their customers. Probably the first such examples are so called “kosher” internet service providers, which use various filtering methods to ensure a safe internet for observant Jews who still wish to have access to a large component of the system. This can easily be carried over to other niche markets such as child/teen friendly internet service providers.
So what can we do? Well, the first thing we should do is focus on local elections. If we have politicians at local levels of government who will fight back against the federal government’s oppressive actions, then we can reduce the damage done and possibly even reverse past damages done. As far as the internet itself goes, of course at least for now we can still use software which helps protect our privacy and hopefully with some work, Politicoid will be able to come out with some tools to help.
Fast Lanes and CDNs
People may think that throttling is a negative aspect of how the internet functions today, but it is actually very important. Without throttling, it would essentially be impossible to have the internet as we do today. Throttling allows some contact to reach its destination faster than others. For instance, libraries that make webpages function properly often get priority attention. Systems called CDNs or Content Delivery Networks are high speed networks which get the highest priority. They are a shared system on which many libraries are stored. Without them, many websites would take much longer to load. They can do this because of preferred status and because CDNs have their own infrastructure directly embedded within the infrastructure of ISPs.
CDNs also help relieve the traffic burden on smaller servers. A lot of the basic content that every website has, such as various user interface libraries, are loaded from CDNs rather than from the actual server. This increases the speed at which the site loads while also reducing the amount of content the server has to supply.
That’s not all though. By prioritizing traffic, ISPs can ensure that the average person has a reasonable viewing experience while also limiting cost. Without throttling, to maintain the same connection speed, the ISPs would need much faster infrastructures. This would greatly increase the cost of internet access. Most likely we would see both an increase in cost and a decrease in speed.
League of Legends
According to Forbes, League of Legends was the most played game in the world, as of 2012. (Forbes) It is an online game and as such needs a system which can transfer small chunks of information for very little delay. (Kotaku)
The Internet Optimization team is actively working with ISPs across the US and Canada to build what’s known as an internet backbone for League players. This backbone will decrease variances and chokepoints in connections across the region, resulting in a better optimized connection to those shiny new servers. Expect these internet superhighways to roll out in early 2015. (League of Legends)
Now this could be seen as traffic shaping. There is a good chance that under Net Neutrality protocols, such a system would become “illegal.” Just some more food for thought.
Priority for Emergency Communication
Interestingly, Net Neutrality actually makes one of the government’s own initiatives, TSP, “illegal.”
Telecommunications Service Priority (TSP) is a program that authorizes national security and emergency preparedness (NS/EP) organizations to receive priority treatment for vital voice and data circuits. The TSP program provides service vendors a Federal Communications Commission mandate to prioritize requests by identifying those services critical to NS/EP. A TSP assignment ensures that it will receive priority attention by the service vendor before any non-TSP service.
But such priorities violate the requirement that service providers treat all content and all users equally. Service providers cannot give preferential treatment. “Net neutrality rules prevent this by requiring ISPs to connect users to all lawful content on the internet equally, without giving preferential treatment to certain sites or services (Public Knowledge).” Of course, the government will probably just ignore its own rules when it wants to do something, but I think the point is clear.