Net Neutrality

Recently President Obama has shown his support to Net Neutrality, I have also noticed that a lot of people do not even know what that means or are told to support it or go against it. I am going to try to sum it up as simply as possible. 

The basic principle of Net Neutrality is everyone should have equal access to websites and the web. Without Net Neutrality, Internet Service Providers like the infamous Comcast or Time Warner Cable could block websites that they do not want their costumers accessing. They can also make you pay an extra fee just to access a certain website like Facebook, Google or Netflix. Think of basically paying for cable and then having to pay for HBO as well. In cities and suburban areas this is not a problem but in rural areas some cable companies have one service provider and are forced to go to that one if they want access to the internet. In Potsdam we are forced into Time Warner Cable and there is no choice or say. They have a hold on the market and can control however they like. 

Google has taken the mantle of showing everyone the problem with the ISP's. With their "Google Fiber", and it is a faster internet service at around the same cost of internet that ISP's are giving out. Google gives one gigabit of data per second for $70 a month while I am currently pay near $60 for 15 megabits of data per second. We all know that these ISP's have large amounts of money and can build the infrastructure that is available but with a control over the market, why would they? 

Then again though President Obama in October, 2007 promised for Net Neutrality if elected President why did it take him almost exactly 7 years to come out again to show his support?  In any event the President wants to make the internet a utility so that the government can protect its people from the ISP's.