Farewell Net Neutrality: What it Means for Us

Lauren Hannula Managing Editor

Updated 11 June 2018

In this Guide

What is Net Neutrality?
How Will the Internet Change?
What Do I Need to Do Now?
How to Choose the Best Internet Plan

Article Summary

The official repeal of net neutrality could change the way we access information on the internet and could even affect the price of internet plans or how we buy them in the future.

We’ve all heard about net neutrality, but it can be difficult to understand exactly just how its repeal may affect you and how you access website content and apps. It made headlines in December of 2017 when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced the rules would no longer apply to the way internet service providers (ISPs) handled web content.

It's making headlines again today, as the repeal is made official and we're now wondering how exactly our access to the internet will change.

What is Net Neutrality?

In a nutshell, net neutrality (also known as open internet) was a set of rules that all internet service providers (ISPs) had to adhere to. It basically stopped them from blocking, slowing down, or speeding up any websites or apps and was put in place to protect consumers and give fair treatment to all web content.

How Will the Internet Change?

There's a reason why there was a huge uproar about the repeal of net neutrality, and a reason why it was enforced in the first place. Perhaps the best way to explain how the absence of these rules will affect everyday people is to provide some real-life examples.

How it Could Affect Internet Access

Think about how you currently browse the web—let’s say you need to buy some dog food. The first thing you do is search for “buy dog food” on Google. Your top search results are well-known retailers and e-commerce sites—Petco, Amazon, and Walmart. Further down are other sites that provide guides and comparisons on how and where to buy dog food—Business Insider and Bark Post.

Net neutrality made sure that you could access every single one of these sites the same way without bias. Without net neutrality however, e-commerce giants like Amazon would technically be able to pay your ISP some extra money in order to make their site run faster than the others or even block competitor sites.

So, you click on Bark Post to read their article on their “10 Favorite Dry Dog Foods and Where to Buy Them For Less,” but you’re left with a blank screen waiting for the site to load. Within 4 seconds, about 25% of us will hit the back button in impatience and try a different site. In this scenario, it would be Amazon's link, which loads almost immediately.

In this scenario, Amazon has the competitive edge, as you’re likely to end up buying dog food—whether it was the best deal or not—on their site purely because it was easier to do.

How it Could Affect Internet Plans

The loss of net neutrality also has the potential to drastically change how we purchase internet plans and how they're currently priced.

What if your current internet service provider is AT&T but you want to lower your monthly cost by switching to a cheaper provider? They could potentially block competitors’ sites from you so when you try to research cheaper internet plans, you can't even access their sites, making it more difficult for you to switch.

Another thing the absence of net neutrality may result in is popular content providers, like Netflix, YouTube, and reddit, being charged extra by ISPs to keep their sites running at full speed, which could result in extra fees for us consumers. ISPs themselves may also decide to charge consumers extra to access popular sites like these. So, more expensive internet plans may be on the horizon.

What Do I Need to Do Now?

There is no definitive answer to what the repeal of net neutrality really means to us in the long-term. We can look to historical events prior to net neutrality rules being enforced in 2015, such as AT&T and Apple’s attempt to block Skype from users, or when multiple providers blocked Google Wallet in order to promote their own mobile payment app. It’s possible that we’ll see similar things happening again.

We can look to countries like India, Japan, and Australia, which don’t enforce net neutrality either, but do have other policies and regulations in place to provide fair treatment to all web content.

Ultimately, it’s too early to tell how this may change the way you choose your internet service provider in the future. New data packages may come out, providers may start charging based on the type of content you are accessing, such as social media, music, or cloud storage. Although for now, some major internet service providers have said they have no plans to do any of these things, only time will tell. What’s important right now is to be aware of any changes to your current internet plan and to compare plans to get the best deal.

How to Choose the Best Internet Plan

There are many factors to consider when choosing the best internet plan for you, including:

Your monthly budget
How much data you typically use
How many people are in your household
How many devices you share your internet with
What you use the internet for

If you just use your home internet connection for the basics, like emailing and browsing the web, then you probably won't need super fast speeds and can save a bit of money by choosing a plan with speeds of up to 30Mbps.

If you are a heavy online gamer or stream videos in HD regularly, then you'll want faster speeds and a plan that gives you plenty of data each month. Luckily, there are a number of internet plans with speeds of 100Mbps or higher and include at least 1,000GB of data.

Some things to watch out for before you choose an internet plan include:

Whether you're locked into a contract
Price increases (some plans offer a discounted rate for the first few months only)
Installation fees
Whether the plan is available in your area (be sure to input your address when using our comparison tool)

Lauren Hannula

Managing Editor

Lauren is WhistleOut's Managing Editor. With over 14 years of digital writing and publishing experience, she's developed a passion for breaking down overly complex topics to offer easy, affordable solutions that help make the most of the tech you already have in your pocket. Her work has appeared in industry stalwarts such as CNET, Yahoo! News, and Forbes.

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