The day after the FCCs decision, consumers are going to see no changes to how their internet works. Everyone will be able to access their favorite websites; no ones traffic will be throttled based on content; and the consumer internet is going to work the same way it did the day before the FCC order is adopted.
Consumers will, however, see enormous benefits from the FCCs actions. Utility regulation over broadband can only inhibit incentives for network investment. By lifting that cloud here, the FCC will restore the bi-partisan, light-touch regulatory structure that made the United States the world leader in mobile broadband infrastructure. If you have ever wondered why European mobile broadband lagged so far behind the United States over the past decade, you dont have to look any farther than the differences in regulatory approach which existed in Europe since 2003. Indeed, just as the United States was moving towards utility regulation in 2015, Europe was trying to reform its regulatory approach to mimic the United States post-2003 investment curve.
The doomsayers, of course, have a different view, conspicuously colored by a litany of hypotheticals and hyperbole, and generally devoid of facts. Some are calling this the death of the internet as we know it. The doomsayers, however, have been making these and similar dire predictions for years. In 2010, in response to the first FCC Open Internet rules, Free Press warned:
These rules dont do enough to stop the phone and cable companies from dividing the Internet into fast and slow lanes, and they fail to protect wireless users from discrimination. No longer can you get to the same Internet via your mobile device as you can via your laptop. The rules pave the way for AT&T to block your access to third-party applications and to require you to use its own preferred applications.
Of course, none of those predictions ever came true then and they wont come true after the FCC acts here either. There will be a lot of talk over the next two weeks on what the FCCs net neutrality order means. The truth is that, at first, no one will notice a difference in how their internet works. But when the removal of utility regulation translates into greater broadband investment and increased innovation on the internetwell, everyone will eventually notice that.