Internet Slowdown Day
On Wednesday, September 10th many companies such as Netflix, Twitter, Etsy, Mozilla, and Reddit, among others gave users a glimpse of what the internet could look like in the near future: slow. While their sites were not actually any slower, they displayed the infamous loading wheel for the entire duration of the day in response to the rules proposed by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). This rule would allow Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as Comcast, Verizon, Time Warner, and AT&T the ability to create 'fast lanes' for paying companies to have internet priorities over others who don't pay the fee. This would get rid of any semblance of Net Neutrality - the principal that all Web content is treated equally by ISPs. And so for the whole day, many web based companies will be showing the loading pinwheel in protest.
What could this mean for us? Major existing companies would most likely be paying for faster access for users on their site. The most logical result from this is that services such as Hulu Plus, Netflix, and Amazon Prime (among many others) will increase their costs to compensate for the fees they are paying to ISPs for this faster lane on the web. It also means that while existing companies could foot the bill, smaller independent or start-up companies would have difficulty getting into the market. Studies have shown that an increase in loading times by as much as 100 milliseconds can have a large impact on how long users will stay on a site whether they will return. Companies like Facebook were able to grow quickly without many start-up costs, and having to pay to have privileged web use could seriously hinder a new companies ability to thrive on the web.
https://www.battleforthenet.com/
What could this mean for us? Major existing companies would most likely be paying for faster access for users on their site. The most logical result from this is that services such as Hulu Plus, Netflix, and Amazon Prime (among many others) will increase their costs to compensate for the fees they are paying to ISPs for this faster lane on the web. It also means that while existing companies could foot the bill, smaller independent or start-up companies would have difficulty getting into the market. Studies have shown that an increase in loading times by as much as 100 milliseconds can have a large impact on how long users will stay on a site whether they will return. Companies like Facebook were able to grow quickly without many start-up costs, and having to pay to have privileged web use could seriously hinder a new companies ability to thrive on the web.
https://www.battleforthenet.com/
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