IMPACT ON EDUCATION —CALPIRG is working to make sure that Congress doesn’t discriminate among users of the internet. Changes to the long-standing net neutrality policy could make it harder for educational users to access and distribute information on the internet.

Congress To Decide The Fate Of The Internet

In the late 1990s the Internet emerged as a new engine for commerce, a new catalyst for citizen participation in democracy and a new source for music, video and other cultural experiences. Consumers don’t just “watch” the Internet; they participate, they collaborate and they create. We look to the Internet as a fair and open marketplace of ideas.

But now, buoyed by recent Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and Supreme Court decisions that together eliminated a fundamental principle known as net neutrality, the phone and cable companies hope to tilt the field to their advantage.

Internet Gatekeepers
Without net neutrality, phone and cable companies could place some Web sites in a slow lane, and others, because they have the resources to pay more, or because their political views pass muster with the companies, get in a fast lane.

Phone and cable companies could block or slow down e-mail traffic and Web content from membership organizations—from CALPIRG to the Christian Coalition and from Common Cause to Gun Owners of America. And these groups would lose access in favor of content from big advertisers and media companies.

That’s why a large coalition of organizations and businesses are working to keep the Internet free of gatekeepers. The problem isn’t the phone companies charging us more for faster Internet connections—it’s the phone companies erecting tollbooths that limit where we can go and what we can see.

CALPIRG is a founding member of a new media and democracy coalition that seeks to reinstate the net neutrality rules that kept the Internet free. By early fall we expect Congress to make a critical decision on the future of net neutrality.

Critical Opportunity
This fall will be an important time for internet freedom and media reform. In addition to debate on net neutrality, we’ll see congressional consideration of phone company-backed proposals to compete with the cable companies.

We’ve long criticized the cable monopoly’s disdain for fair rates and good service, but based on the phone companies’ attack on internet freedom, we’re not sure that allowing phone companies into the cable business will make matters much better.

We’re watching carefully to ensure that phone companies treat consumers and local communities fairly. Unfortunately, the U.S. House of Representatives has already approved a bill that overwhelmingly favors phone company interests.

Finally, under orders from a U.S. Court of Appeals, the FCC announced in June that it will again take up critical rules controlling the size of television networks. If networks grow too large, viewers lose choices.

Unfortunately, as consumers seek to get more out of communication technology, the telecom industry wants to give us less. Less customer service means fewer Web sites and fewer choices.