Net Neutrality Vote Heavy Hit to Schools and Districts

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

Now that the rules that govern net neutrality have been peeled away, the reins to the internet have been handed back to service providers such as AT&T, Verizon and Comcast to manage access to websites and web-based services. In a 3-2 vote along party lines, the Federal Communications Commission rescinded regulations put in place in 2015 that treated the internet as a utility.  The big worry: Because ISPs will no longer have to treat online traffic equally, they will choose to prioritize traffic based primarily on financial considerations. In fact, stated FCC Commissioner Michael O’Rielly, who voted for the new order, in a world in which data usage online is growing exponentially, “It is hard to imagine that some prioritization of traffic will not be necessary.” Education organizations have uniformly expressed disappointment about the outcome of the vote as well as concerns that the “light-touch” regulatory approach to internet governance will end up weighing heavily on schools and districts.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/12/15/net-neutrality-vote-heavy-hit-to-schools-and-districts.aspx

Share on Facebook

from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=35134