Home
News
You are here

Will Verizon, AT&T, or Comcast, benefit from the Net Neutrality repeal? (poll results)

By Daniel Petrov

Published: Dec 18, 2017, 6:23 AM

15comments

Will the net neutrality repeal be a boon for carriers?

Yes, they'll turn their networks into toll roads

82.18%

Nah, access priority will stay largely the same

17.82%

We asked you last week if you think that carriers will benefit from the gutting of Net Neutrality, and play arbiters to the increasingly vast amount of content that can be accessed through their networks, or will it all work out in the end. Considering that Verizon owns Yahoo's digital media, AT&T is trying to acquire Time Warner, and T-Mobile or Sprint are throwing in Netflix or Hulu for free on their networks, they can certainly put tolls on the road for other content, thus avoiding the fate of being just dumb pipes for bits and bytes. Well, more than 80% of our more than 1000 respondents are weary that the carriers will use their position to set their own rules as to who can access the network at what speed, rather than wave hands, and keep things largely as they are.

We’re disappointed in the decision to gut #NetNeutrality protections that ushered in an unprecedented era of innovation, creativity & civic engagement. This is the beginning of a longer legal battle. Netflix stands w/ innovators, large & small, to oppose this misguided FCC order.
— Netflix US (@netflix) 14 декември 2017 г.

The so-called Net Neutrality principle used to enshrine the prohibition for the likes of Verizon, AT&T, Comcast and other ISPs to give preferential treatment to certain content before others on their networks. They couldn't, say, make Netlflix or Facebook have faster access to their networks, or, respectively, slow down those who don't pay, essentially turning the Interwebs into a toll road. That's been the basic principle of the Internet for a good while. Not anymore, though, as the FCC just repealed those Net Neutrality rules, opening the floodgates for preferential treatments of "rich" and "poor" content providers, and the whole lot of conflicts of interest stemming from this.

View Full Bio

Daniel, a devoted tech writer at PhoneArena since 2010, has been engrossed in mobile technology since the Windows Mobile era. His expertise spans mobile hardware, software, and carrier networks, and he's keenly interested in the future of digital health, car connectivity, and 5G. Beyond his professional pursuits, Daniel finds balance in travel, reading, and exploring new tech innovations, while contemplating the ethical and privacy implications of our digital future.