This one of the most grueling issue the USA been facing and their people are struggling to defend for them is their right on the web. It’s like a war that each battles different sides win and deciding the winner is like a coin toss, the odds are 50-50.
What is Net Neutrality?
As I quote from Wikipedia; “Net neutrality is the principle that governments should mandate Internet service providers to treat all data on the Internet the same, and not discriminate or charge differently by user, content, website, platform, application, type of attached equipment, or method of communication.”*
So for those who are still unsure about net neutrality, it’s better for me to explain this in layman’s term.
You bought 1GB of data, its consumable and you have the freedom to use it any way you want it, use it on social media, video, and music streaming sites, sending email, play online games, download and upload files and many more the world wide web can offer. With net neutrality, 1GB of data is 1GB no string attached. But the removal of net neutrality means carriers have now the option to control what you can do to that 1GB of data you bought, either use it only on social media and block other web access altogether. Or you can only use that 1GB of data for online gaming or for streaming with just 100MB for other websites. That 1GB of data is no longer pure 1GB of data anymore; it already has kilometers of strings attached to it making it a burden for most people. No more net freedom, no more neutrality.
People of the US is fighting for it now. Activists rallied to the streets all over the country, and people go to social media to protest and reject the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) plan to remove net neutrality regulations that were first recognized during the time of former President Barack Obama.
I won’t be discussing all it and for the sake of those who want more in-depth information about it, just check Net Neutrality in the United States.
Does it exist in the Philippines?
In some form yes it does exist, our wired connection remains neutral all this time, but in the mobile data, things differ a bit. The two existing communication giants (PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc.) has practiced its so-called mobile promos with a variety of it changes every few months. All though most of their data promos have no limitations they even offer freebies on top of it. But net neutrality isn’t all exclusive on limiting what content are allowed to access but also the speed and data cap. The Philippines is the slowest average internet speed In ASIA-Pacific region (just 5.5 Mbps), and yet people pay higher than what they should get. And who will forget that so-called FUP (Fair Usage Policy) which should never implement in UNLIMITED Data plan?
So that mean BPO industry in the Philippines is safe.
Well, we are safe since our businesses use a wired connection with business type connection plans which I said purely neutral (let’s just deal with our connection speed). BUT, indirectly we will be affected big time if removal of net neutrality will be implemented because many of its BPO clients are in the USA, implementation of it will result in a drop in US clients. And that will greatly affect the Filipino Visual Assistants who are rank first on Voice services and second on non-voice services. The BPO industry worldwide will be affected.
It’s a bit hard for us just to sit and watch this whole thing like some TV drama series waiting for its ending. Because depending on the ending, we might see a new TV drama (or horror) series that we don’t want to watch at all.
Honestly, I am against the abolishment of net neutrality, and also wishes our country will not face something like that ever.
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