Just a few more hours: Save the Internet!
Looking for a text to send to the FCC to demand that they save net neutrality? Feel free to borrow from text below, and you can send it to the FCC at https://www.accessnow.org/page/speakout/fcc-protect-net-neutrality?js=false :
Gentlemen and Ladies:
I am writing to urge you to reclassify the internet as a telecommunications service and regulate it as a public utility.
I have no objection to making high-volume users pay on a per-bit basis, so that, to the extent theyre transmitting more bits, theyd pay more so long as the price per bit is the same as for everyone else.
What I object to is selling a fast lane; i.e., I want all lanes to remain the same speed. If Netflix or other large corporations with deep pockets are permitted to buy greater SPEED, access to smaller websites will be comparatively disadvantaged and that would eviscerate net neutrality.
Internet service in the US is already substantially slower and more expensive than in other developed countries. The reasons boil down to the fact that weve failed to treat it as a public utility, as other countries have. Not only have we left this essential infrastructure to the vagaries of corporations, but weve under-regulated them, resulting in a lack of competition, among other problems.
Courts have acknowledged that the FCC has the power to classify the internet as a public utility rather than as an information service.
The telephone system is regulated as a utility for the public good; but the internet has already replaced wires for many peoples phone calls. The U.S. mail is heavily regulated for the public good; but email and other online communications are rapidly replacing paper mail.
The internet is not primarily a repository for information; rather, it has become the primary means for communication. The 'net is not only the biggest and best public square weve ever had; its become humanitys central nervous system. It is a public communications utility par excellence, if ever there was one, and should be classified as such for regulatory purposes.