Net Neutrality Matters for Business

Today is the last day to submit public comments to the Federal Trade Commission regarding upcoming regulatory changes concerning net neutrality for Internet Service Providers. I, like many concerned citizens, have written to the FCC at [email protected] to express my support for net neutrality.

Neutral treatment of Internet traffic is a baseline of fair expectations. I could offer up a variety of examples, but I want to focus on just one for now. My company like many others uses a Virtual Private Network connection for staff who work from home. This improves security and enables Blue Ridge ESOP Associates to empower staff working from various locations. In turn, supporting remote work has given us access to a nationwide talent pool.

I advise our staff on Internet connection standards but most people don't have many competing options for service. My concern about the loss of net neutrality is that some ISPs may treat VPN traffic as a second class citizen on their networks and throttle the bandwidth. Since a VPN encrypts and in some circumstances disguises the actual network usage I have good reason for this concern.

It's not practical to expect small businesses like ours to negotiate individual service level agreements with ISPs for every remote worker. Net neutrality is a common sense regulation that enables everyone who uses the Internet as a critical infrastructure to focus on what matters. The canard of "freedom" suggested by advocates of the proposed rollback in regulation should reflect on the administrative burden when the quality Internet service is variable.