VICE Impact: What is net neutrality, why is there so much at stake here?Tara Sharp: There are a number of large internet service providers and others who have proposed the idea of creating fast lanes. What we can tell you is that there's no such thing, really, as fast lanes. Right now, everything is fast. But if you want to slow something down, you can do that.Though large ISPs like Comcast and AT&T stand to benefit significantly from a rollback of net neutrality, there are a large number of smaller internet providers across the country who have banded together to fight the FCC’s proposed repeal.
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So for example, and this is hypothetical, if Netflix were to enter an agreement with Comcast, and you were a Comcast subscriber, your internet access to Netflix would be really fast. It would be an internet fast lane. But let's say you're a smaller business, like a local media company. And you're not big enough to enter into a relationship with Comcast, so your website isn't one of those internet fast lane websites, and you can't afford to pay for one either.That would be bad for the business, because people would get frustrated visiting your site because they couldn't download your content. They'd probably hop off of your site and go to another site where they could get things a lot more quickly. So it really disadvantages small businesses in particular. Because we also believe that those fast lane relationships would be expensive.If net neutrality is stripped away, how could this affect small businesses and startups that couldn't pay for the fast lanes?Access to a free internet system is mission critical for a lot of these young technology startups. If you were starting Airbnb and you couldn't get people to come to your website because the Hilton website went really, really fast but yours was really, really slow, you would never be able to get Airbnb off the ground. Having net neutrality in place is absolutely critical for the growth and success of all small businesses.
Sonic, from our inception, has always believed in the concept of net neutrality. We've always believed that in order to have a really healthy internet culture, that it's critical that everybody has an opportunity to do exactly what they want to do. That's the very basis on which the internet was founded, that it be free and open to everyone. In fact, as an initiative, what we really and truly believe that this country needs to do is increase our internet speeds and make the internet more available to people throughout the country.How could a repeal of net neutrality affect the average consumer?We believe that the large ISPs have an opportunity to charge either businesses or customers more money so that they can use these internet fast lanes. And whether they charge the businesses or the customers, at the end of the day, that's probably going to end up coming out of every American's pocket.We think that the average American who just wants to come home and watch Netflix, for example, would see their bill for their ISP increase. Or, they would have to pay a special increased subscription rate to Netflix, if Netflix has to go and pay an ISP a lot of money for one of these internet fast lanes. They'd probably end up charging their customers more for that added expense."It really disadvantages small businesses in particular."
"Large ISPs have an opportunity to charge either businesses or customers more money so that they can use these internet fast lanes. And whether they charge the businesses or the customers, at the end of the day, that's probably going to end up coming out of every American's pocket."