Keep those signs handy. We're gonna need them.
Net neutrality is now in the courts. USTelecom, a trade group for broadband providers, and others opposed to an open internet filed suit and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will
hear the case in December. One tech entrepreneur, Rami Essaid,
has a message for big telecom and the court.
As co-founder and CEO of Distil Networks, I have a message for carriers like Comcast and Verizon: when you attack the Open Internet Order, you threaten the future of business and innovation in America. I am one of countless entrepreneurs who would not have been able to start my business, never mind build it into a successful company, without net neutrality—the principle that keeps the Internet an open space, free from undue corporate control. The order simply codifies net neutrality into law. It bans carriers from blocking or slowing down sites, or charging sites extra fees to reach people faster. The order is necessary to preserve an open and competitive environment that fosters innovation for companies like ours.
For online companies, speed is everything. Studies confirm that for every second slower your web page loads, you lose engagement, you lose people, you lose business. The faster you deliver content, the more users you attract, the more customers you acquire, the more money you make. Every company wants to deliver content faster, but it is impossible if they cannot afford a faster connection to customers.
Without the level playing field preserved by the Open Internet Order, the 800-pound gorillas of Internet content delivery could simply buy themselves a private fast lane on the Internet; underdogs who could not afford it would be stuck in the slow lane. No amount of ingenuity would enable a small business to move from the slow lane to the fast lane. No matter how much you tweak your car’s engineering, it’s still throttled by an artificial speed limit.
While the biggest battle for net neutrality has been won, as long as big telecom exists we won't win the war. Not unless the top echelons of their management structures are infiltrated by the likes of Essain, and that's never going to happen. The ongoing battle isn't just in the courts, it's in Congress as Republicans are
doing whatever they can to block implementation of the rules. Which means, even after all these years, we can't stop fighting.
Tell Congress to stop the sneak attacks on net neutrality. Tell them to block any appropriations riders that threaten to undermine the FCC and the internet.