Comcast, Verizon and AT&T want to end net neutrality so they can charge extra fees to control what we see & do online.

Net neutrality is the principle that Internet providers like Comcast & Verizon should not control what we see and do online. In 2015, startups, Internet freedom groups, and 3.7 million commenters won strong net neutrality rules from the US Federal Communication Commission (FCC). The rules prohibit Internet providers from blocking, throttling, and paid prioritization—"fast lanes" for sites that pay, and slow lanes for everyone else.

Nearly everyone who understands and depends on the Internet supports net neutrality, whether they're startup founders, activists, gamers, politicians, investors, comedians, YouTube stars, or typical Internet users who just want their Internet to work as advertised—regardless of their political party. But don't take our word for it. Ask around, or watch some of these videos.

Cable companies are famous for high prices and poor service. Several rank as the most hated companies in America. Now, they're lobbying the FCC and Congress to end net neutrality. Why? It's simple: if they win the power to slow sites down, they can bully any site into paying millions to escape the "slow lane." This would amount to a tax on every sector of the American economy. Every site would cost more, since they'd all have to pay big cable. Worse, it would extinguish the startups and independent voices who can't afford to pay. If we lose net neutrality, the Internet will never be the same.

This will hurt Clixsense and gpt sites.

I am okay they can charge more money on get rich program and scammer websites

This will hurt any company, anywhere in the world that has a presence in the United States...effectively, it would allow the American companies to control a significant amount of the internet....which would be bad for everyone and would simply increase the amount of anti-American sentiment across the globe. Can't say the news is even remotely surprising.

Very sad decision.

Thankfully Eu-countries are protected from this kind of tyranny by law.

In October 2015 the first EU-wide Net Neutrality rules were adopted.


Our commitment to net neutrality
EU rules on net neutrality (open internet) apply as of 30 April 2016, following the adoption of Regulation (EU) 2015/2120 on 25 November 2015.

This regulation is a major achievement for the Digital Single Market. It creates the individual and enforceable right for end-users to access and distribute internet content and services of their choice. Common EU rules on net neutrality ensure that the same provisions apply across Europe.

The rules enshrine the principle of net neutrality into EU law: no blocking or throttling or discrimination of online content, applications and services.

Every European must be able to have access to the open internet and all content and service providers must be able to provide their services via a high-quality open internet. Under these rules, blocking, throttling and discrimination of internet traffic by Internet Service Providers (ISPs) is not allowed in the EU, save for three exhaustive exceptions (compliance with legal obligations; integrity of the network; congestion management in exceptional and temporary situations) and users are free to use their favourite apps and services no matter the offer they subscribe to.

All traffic has to be treated equally. This means, for example, that there can be no prioritisation of traffic in the internet access service. At the same time, equal treatment allows reasonable day-to-day traffic management according to objectively justified technical requirements, and which must be independent of the origin or destination of the traffic and of any commercial considerations. Common rules on net neutrality mean that internet access providers cannot pick winners or losers on the internet, or decide which content and services are available.

The rules also give certainty for internet access providers and providers of content and applications to offer specialised services with specific quality requirements, including necessary safeguards to ensure the open internet is not negatively affected by the provision of these services. Specialised services cannot be a substitute to internet access services, can only be provided if there is sufficient network capacity to provide them in addition to any internet access service and must not be to the detriment of the availability or general quality of internet access services for end-users.

The role of regulators and BEREC guidelines
National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) will have to monitor market developments. They will have the powers and the obligation to assess traffic management, comercial practices and agreements and to effectively enforce the Regulation.

NRAs will also have to ensure that the quality of the Internet access service reflects advances in technology. They are empowered to set minimum quality of service requirements on Internet access providers and other appropriate measures to ensure that all end-users enjoy an open Internet access service of good quality.

On 30 August 2016 the Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC), in close cooperation with the Commission and after consulting stakeholders, issued guidelines for the implementation of the obligations of NRAs in order to contribute to the consistent application of this Regulation. The guidelines will help NRAs to assess inter alia agreements and commercial practices and ''specialised services'' against a common benchmark, and to reach consistent decisions and enforcement actions.

Many countries slams EU, But they do shine through once in a while

This will pave way for what I call Internet A La Carte (IALC)

You want to watch youtube videos, you pay ....
You want to check e-mails, you pay....
Adding premiums and charges for specific sites and services.

Welcome to the new world as we bloody know it.

What'd be great is to remove the effective monopoly. In my area the choices are Centurylink DSL or Comcast Cable and both are terrible. Comcast is the most hated company in the country for a reason. If a third party or parties were encouraged or at least allowed to lay fiber in our neighborhood Centurylink and Comcast would be forced to compete or perish.

All I know is bigger government and more laws is rarely the solution. Competition almost always is.

A few years ago i was a customer at Telekom with a flatrate internet contract, they kept resetting my internet connection every 24 hours, my modem always diconnected and reconnected exactly at midnight every night. On top of that i only got about 10-20% of download and upload speed from what was advertised. I kept asking myself why am i still a customer ? So i cancelled my contract with them and wen't on to AOL. At AOL my contract was also a flatrate contract with a little faster D/U speed as with Telekom, but not really something to be thrilled about since my internet speed that i received in reality was only about 20-30% of what was advertised. However my modem at AOL never resset itself like with Telekom but at AOL after 2 years they decided to change my flatrate contract where you pay a same equal amount every month, to a pay per gigabyte contract and they didn't even bother to tell me about the changes in contract. So at the end of the month i was shocked to see my internet bill skyrocketed to an unrealistic amount, naturally i refused to pay those extra costs, can't remember if i or they cancelled my contract. But who cares because i'm not coming back to AOL. Was a few months without any internet connection until i discovered a new internet service provider called Kabeldeutschland, have made a new flatrate contract with them and am happy as it should be, super high speed beyond my wildest dreams and no resetting of my modem, great customer service and fair prices.

Conclusion:
Telekom = we are stuck inside the seven seasons of hell and disconnections
Aol = watch out for the quiet rippoff wizard from beyond that doesn't let you pass without paying
Kabeldeutschland = Let's ride on fluffy broadband clouds on the express highway of paradise

Forgot to say that that was many years ago

If you live in the eh " lebt auf dem Land" in Germany....the disconnections sounds very familair to me
Talk about slow internet.