
For example, T-Mobile allows its user to stream unlimited video and audio from select services like Netflix, and AT&T gives its users the opportunity to access DirectTV for free. “Zero-rating” is a provider activity where the ISP excludes a majority of websites from a consumer’s usage allowances, while allowing other applications to squeak by without affecting a user’s data caps. One part of SB 822 that goes further than the FCC’s 2015 order are the provisions prohibiting zero-rating. The bill also requires ISPs to engage in disclosure of its performance and management practices. In keeping with that ideal, this legislation prohibits ISPs from blocking, speeding up or slowing down websites and applications. SB 822 attempts to restore the regulations contained in the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order. Senator Wiener introduced the bill to ensure that all customers have access to the open internet. California’s response to the FCC’s order comes in the form of Senate Bill 822 by Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco). In response to the FCC’s annihilation of those net neutrality protections, many states responded with lawsuits and legislation. The order rolls back Obama-era net neutrality regulations that many internet users and small companies came to rely on. The FCC reasoned that classifying the internet in this way will result in better investment and competition that benefits the consumer. The order created a much less regulated Internet by classifying it as an information service. This and other concerns over the open internet mounted after the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) “Restoring Internet Freedom Order” in 2017. Net neutrality refers to the concept that the internet should be equal to all who access it, and not controlled by ISPs who can slow down, speed up, or otherwise disturb user access.Ĭonsumers and small startups demand net neutrality because of the potential for an ISPs potential to favor its own applications over others it does not own. Those individuals who believe the internet is meant to be open are termed net neutrality supporters.

Should the internet be open? This question is on the minds of many internet users, startups, and internet service providers (ISPs), like Verizon or AT&T.
