We Need Net Neutrality

It's with a fair bit of horror when I read about the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted 3-2 to remove net neutrality rules it put in two years ago, effectively ensuring it can't ever reinstate it. The US and its current Presidency have been really good at shocking the rest of the world this year.

Regardless of whether you're for or against net neutrality, the rule are in place to encourage fair play, so far. Scrapping net neutrality is going to make consumers suffer more, and pay more without the benefit of wider choices. The absence of net neutrality will just see dominance of larger companies over start-ups that wouldn't necessarily translate into better terms of service. The Atlantic wrote,

In truth, nobody yet knows how the net-neutrality rollback will affect anyone—consumers, telcos, big tech, or start-ups. Internet zealots warn of widespread blocking and throttling, not to mention pay-for-play fast lanes that might benefit big companies like Netflix and Google and prevent upstarts from enjoying innovation and growth. ISPs, aware of how hot the issue is, will likely take no immediate action.

The ripple effect is bound to reach us. We don't know what exactly will happen in a few years, but IMHO, Singapore can't afford to go down this same road. We're way too small. Our infrastructure and all works, but I really don't trust our ISPs. The market is limited, and look at the way our telcos respond to market demands. It was with relief when I read that the Infocommunications Media Development Authority (IMDA) said Singapore's stance on net neutrality remains unchanged from its white paper released in 2011.

"Since the formalisation of the Net neutrality policy, IMDA has been monitoring international development, including US and domestic market practices, as well as actively engaging the stakeholders in Singapore," said an IMDA spokesman. 

"Currently, there is no need to revise our policy approach and we have not found any pattern to suggest that ISPs are operating in breach of this policy." 

Singapore's current Net neutrality policy forbids ISPs from blocking "legitimate Internet content", according to the white paper. 

They also cannot implement practices which render content "effectively inaccessible or unusable". 

This means that while ISPs can still throttle Internet traffic, they cannot do so to the extent that users are practically unable to access websites or the Internet. However, there is no definition of what constitutes "unusable" connectivity.