Internet providers want control over your internet content
2009
My unlimited world-wide access to the internet arrives via wireless
radio waves – theses are the same electromagnetic waves that bring my
radio and TV.
So why are there just 300 TV stations and 55 radio stations --- yet
with radio signals from my internet provider, there are billions of
‘instant access’ sites available right now.
I can go see the ‘funniest world videos’ and don’t have to wait a full
week and sit through a half hour of goo-gah to see four 10 second film
clips. And if one site doesn’t have the clip, I can select from a
10,000,000 other sources. This is what people want. Nobody can
monopolize on the internet (until 2020), and if one site fails to deliver, then
another site will take its place. This is true innovation.
The same endless selection should be available through radio and TV but
somehow the innovation stopped. London news is not available on my TV.
Programming from Moscow is not available on my radio. How did the free
market stop innovation with my radio and TV?
The answer is --- the government let the service-providers control the
content – the service providers decide what will be put over the
airwaves. You don’t decide – the service providers decide.
Why has there been absolutely no innovation with radio and TV for 30
years in a free market economy? Thirty years without one
innovation - and every radio and TV provider has exactly the same
offering. It’s because radio and TV are monopolistic enterprises run by
big money.
And now the providers of the internet want control over your internet
content. The internet providers and telecoms companies want to stop
people from having access to billions of options, and instead of
letting people freely choose, they want to funnel everybody down
through a few high-paying options.
Instead of shopping and getting news from any source you prefer, your
choices will be reduced to the ‘preferred’ sites sponsored by your
internet provider.
This is what net neutrality is all about. We need net neutrality or the
internet will eventually look as bland and boring as radio and TV.
However the service providers and telecoms are pushing around
big-dollar checkers and telling folks that proponents of net neutrality
are stifling innovation. The only innovation that the telecoms offer
are the innovation of monopolizing the internet and making it look like
your radio and TV.
Gene Haynes