Jesse Docken

Save the Last Free Resource of The Planet

There are very few resources on this planet that are plentiful in supply, especially when it comes to communication. Phone services are limiting, and cell-phones still expensive to budget. Even the post office has hiked up prices over the years, making letters less and less attractive.
So personal conversation is difficult unless you can meet with the people face-to-face, and everyone is on a schedule. What about news and media? Communities and fan clubs? Development forums and resource centers? In the real world, you need to pay for real estate, utilities, transmission rights, and many other expenses that make these unappetizing to most entrepreneurs and investors.
But in the digital world it is a completely different story. Anyone with a connection to the Internet can host their own servers, make a website, manage a forum, or post their own news. Many indie sites provide news coverage that corporate-owned media outlets avoid, giving the people information and education about topics that corrupt business practitioners would rather leave secret.
There is only one cost to the Internet, and that is to have a connection. These can be absurdly cheap, if you use dial-up, or outrageously expensive, if you go with fiberoptic connections. But that's all you need; beyond that, all the resources you need are a few clicks away and primarily free of charge.
Only in the digital world is this possible. Only in the realm of electricity and light can we do such incredible things with very little cost.
If Net Neutrality is maintained, then this remains true and the Internet continues on as the land of freedom. If it is destroyed, then free will no longer exist. Those with money will snuff out those without, and the power of speech only exist on a neighborhood level at best.
There is no reason to destroy Net Neutrality. Fiberoptic connections between ISPs can transfer terabytes of data in the slightest of fractions of a second, far faster than the computers can physically handle. Even if computers can't keep up with the speed of light, they can keep up more than well enough to satisfy the needs of this country.
Virtually all ISPs are connected to each other this way. Many major businesses and universities also use fiberoptics directly to their ISPs. The amount of bandwidth that is transfered through these fiberoptic conduits is only a mere fraction of what they can support.
Even with media streaming and massive multiplayer online games, we have not yet reached the point where light isn't fast enough for us anymore, or where adding one more cable won't fix most of our woes. There is no legitimate reason to start giving preferential treatment to people that pay more; the technology we are using right now is more than adequate, and any problems are probably due to ISPs refusing to add another optic cable or upgrade their outdated systems.
Don't confuse limitations of technology with the laziness of a corporation. We can very easily provide Net Neutrality with our technology, and fiberoptics are not the most expensive thing in the world to purchase (and are, in the long run, excellent investments to make). If these companies are claiming that they can't afford to add a few optic cables and update their outdated technology, then take a closer look at their expenditures. They're probably giving massive paychecks to upper management or taking cruises again.