How Net Neutrality Impacts eLearning: Trouble on the Horizon?
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted in December of 2017 to dismantle the net neutrality policy it established in 2015 under the Obama administration. The core of the Net Neutrality policy was to reclassify Internet Service Providers (ISPs) as “common carriers” who are providing public telecommunications services like other utilities (electricity) instead of just being “information providers.” The distinction is important. If ISPs are common carriers, then they have to treat all content the same, no matter where it’s coming from. This means they can’t decide to make it more difficult to access or stream some content (slowing it down is called “throttling”) nor can they charge different prices to different customers for the same service.
