Worse Off Under Packet Discrimination Essay

We live in a time where the Internet is in the same class as water and electricity. The Internet is a utility that everyone needs to have access to in their daily life. Internet service providers need regulation because consumers and content providers deserve to use the internet at a decent cost and speed and removing regulations only serves the ISPs. Regulation like net neutrality is a great thing for both consumers and content providers. It is important because everyone gets to access and provide content without packet discrimination. According to Hong et al, “CPs are worse off under packet discrimination” (376). If content providers are worse off, the consumer experience is worse as well. Consumers should have options for what they consume. If they cannot have those options, the internet overall is weakened. Packet discrimination leads to both consumers and content providers unhappy. The only people that stand to gain from removing regulation are the ISPs. With no regulation, ISP monopolies will get even worse. “the monopolist ISP always prefers packet discrimination” (Hong et al 367). Packet discrimination means everyone being charged higher rates for the same content; possibly at lower speeds. The most used sites will be the ones that are charged more, because they know many people want to …show more content…
What the actual result of removing current regulation is a series of regional monopolies. ISPs have divided the areas they supply internet to into sections, so consumers only have one viable internet service option. Consumers end up being charged absurd prices compared to what the service is actually costing the ISPs. Removing regulation strengthens those monopolies, and leave no room for new companies to even try to replace the current giants. Instead of bolstering competition, removing regulation hinders