Whose data gets to take the fast lane?

The head of the FCC says don’t worry, Internet users:

“There is one Internet, one Internet.”

But after the latest FCC vote, some critics are not so sure. They’re worried because the local connections that bring internet service into your home are primarily owned by four large corporations, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and Time Warner – you know, the folks with the world’s best hold music.

And the FCC has opened the door to letting those companies set up express lanes, where services like Netflix could pay a toll for faster service.

The fear is that millions of people getting high-speed Godzilla downloads might relegate the latest YouTube Chihuahua video to the slow lanes.

So these people want the Internet companies regulated as if they were a phone company. And after all, for many of us they are the phone company.

But the anti-regulation side says that will kill innovation. Remember when there was only one government-regulated phone company? We were all slaves to land lines and busy signals. Whereas now, thanks to deregulation, its impossible to miss a phone call, unless you lose all feeling in your thigh.

For me, as someone who still owns a phone with a rotary dial, I’m amazed that the number of seconds it might take to download a high definition film to your home theater system can actually lead to protests.

I’m also amazed anyone thinks we are somehow going to insulate the Internet from government interference.
I think we passed that off-ramp miles ago.