Over the past four years, in spite of all the debate, the issue of net neutrality has become less understood, or just ignored — to our peril.

So what is net neutrality? The net has always been neutral; anyone can connect anything to — and connect to anything on — the Internet without restriction. The users of the Internet control what content they view. It is the job of Internet service providers (ISPs) to transfer data requested by the users without interfering with that data. Right now if you open a browser point it to www.google.com it quickly loads the familiar multi-colored logo. You can do the same with Yahoo, MSN, and Ask. Neutrality makes this work; one site loads just as quickly as another.

However, ISPs want more control. After much lobbying and a Supreme Court ruling, in 2005 the Federal Communications Commission removed nondiscrimination protections and handed control of Internet traffic to the telephone and cable companies.

The largest ISPs (AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner) in the U.S. want to eliminate net neutrality and act as gatekeepers for the Internet, controlling the content, speed, and availability of their networks. They see profit potential from corporations.

Currently users pay for service to their homes, but ISPs want to tier that service and charge companies service guarantees. Their plan involves speeding up the sites of the highest bidder while slowing down, blocking, or even redirecting away from competitor sites.

Imagine, in this ISP-controlled world, going to google.com and nothing comes up, or you are redirected to yahoo.com or a specialized ISP search engine, because you haven’t paid for Google access. If you use the ISPs control web searches, they control the results.

Google for “ice cream, columbia, mo”, and of the top 10 results, three are for Sparky’s on Ninth Street. When businesses have to pay for their ranking, who will be in the top three of AT&T Search?

Suddenly the Internet is like cable television with packages and tiered systems. You want CNN.com? Sorry, that’s a part of your ISP’s Gold package and you’re a bronze subscriber. Please enjoy E! News.

What if telephone providers could manage call service the way they want to manage the Internet? You call in an order to Shakespeare’s Pizza for pickup, but an automated response picks up to inform you Domino’s is the official pizza provider of your phone company. The electronic voice tells you to press the number one on your touch-tone phone to connect to Domino’s or press two to connect to Shakespeare’s — and then you wait a few minutes while all of Domino’s guaranteed calls are connected first. Small businesses could find their email, Web site, file transfers, podcasts and videos all slowed or blocked because a competing corporation paid more.

You may have seen the National Cable and Telecommunications Association “PSA” describing net neutrality as mumbo jumbo (http://tinyurl.com/3momgy). This vague ad is a deliberate attempt to mislead the public. The ISPs claim the “multi-billion dollar Silicon Valley tech companies” are trying to get you to pay more. In fact, it’s the multi-billion dollar ISPs that are trying to make more off the services they provide by controlling access to the Internet. They could even go so far as to restrict or block specific operating systems and/or types of computers.

Though net neutrality is at risk by from ISPs, measures are being taken to preserve it. In February, U.S. House of Representatives Resolution 5353, the Internet Freedom Preservation Act of 2008 (http://tinyurl.com/6hgu5e), was introduced to establish broadband policy. This law would prevent ISPs from destroying the Internet by requiring the FCC to stand up for consumer rights.

The Internet was intended for everyone, and net neutrality keeps it that way. No company has a home field advantage, and no company can restrict access. The distance is the same from my computer to any site out there. When site access is based on a pay scale, the public loses. Innovation comes to a halt. Small companies with great ideas can’t get them off the ground because they can’t afford to get users to their site.

Please visit http://www.savetheinternet.com and do your own research on net neutrality. It’s an important issue that deserves our attention. It has the potential to change the face of all Internet based-communication. Call your representatives in Congress to let them know your views on net neutrality and HR5353.

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