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Net Neutrality Repeal to Impact Web Users, Businesses Nationwide

6 years 3 months 1 week ago Thursday, December 14 2017 Dec 14, 2017 December 14, 2017 7:29 PM December 14, 2017 in News

MCALLEN – In a three-to-four vote, the Federal Communications Commission ended the 2015 Obama-era net neutrality regulations that guaranteed equal access to the internet. 

The regulations kept broadband providers from blocking or requiring additional funds from some services and not others, offering equal speed to all sites.

Net neutrality stripped power from internet providers to control where people go and what they do online.

The co-founder of Millennial Marketing, Ivan Quiroga, said he depends on the internet. His job entails managing independent websites and social media for several clients.

Net neutrality meant all the sites he used had a level playing field.

Drew Lentz, with Frontera Consulting and Code RGV, explained what net neutrality meant for web users.

“The internet connection that you have at home, whether you want to go to Netflix, whether you want to go to Hulu, or whether you want to go to Amazon to stream video, it doesn't matter. You get the same access to all three of those services," said Lentz.

Thursday's decision, according to Lentz means “access to new, streaming video … is in jeopardy because it's up to the carrier to do whatever they want to do.”

Carriers have free rein to slow down certain sites or provide a faster connection to others. This means the decision process for what sites users opt to visit is influenced by the rate of speed to select websites.

It'll take a couple of weeks for the changes to go into effect.

Some internet providers have said they won't block websites and won't degrade online traffic based on content. 

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