Internet Neutrality and Why it Matters

With all of the buzz around cord cutting, subscription TV and the death of conventional TV, there has been a discussion in Washington the past few month that has gone unnoticed by many – net neutrality.

Net neutrality in the simplest explanation is based on the requirement that Internet Service Providers (ISPs) treat all traffic equally. This past Tuesday, the US courts ruled against the FCC and in favor of cable and wireless provider Verizon.

The impact of this ruling is that Verizon and other cable and ISPs can now charge premium fees to video streaming services such as Netflix, Hulu, Amazon so that their content receives priority over other internet traffic. That additional cost could potentially be then passed on to the consumer as part of subscription fee.

Given the ruling is very recent, we don’t know how this will play out but the outcome is not favorable to others within the technology community who may end up playing second fiddle when the ISPs will control bandwidth traffic priority.  This could impact new players in the industry as their content would be slower delivering a sub-par experience.

We will certainly be watching this story closely to see how things shake out over the next year and the implications it may have to TV streaming services.