Net Neutrality and the (Gaming) Great White North

So I was Stumbling as I usually am these days and found this video on the net. I was very impressed with it's contents and I wanted to post something about it here. Though there is a bit of 'fear mongering' going on (what good cause doesn't have a wee bit of the fear mongering to back it?) it's quite informative for the lay-person.

I'm up-to-date on the issue at hand but I was thinking about how it might affect those of us North of the 49th. Realistically, most of our web traffic heads south at some point or another before heading overseas. I'm not sure of the actual percentage but I would bet it's at least 75%. Watching all this occur South of the border really does make me worry.

Hopefully you've watched the video? You haven't? Go ahead, I'll wait.

...

Done? What did you think? Scared? You should be. The Internet has always been about net neutrality, each segment of the network allowing all traffic equal access and throughput to get where it needs to go. With these new laws being considered, you can kiss that goodbye.

I'm sure you watched the video but let me give you a gamer's point of view.

You're hunkered down, getting ready to play a bit of BF 2142. You're on Telus or Shaw. Doesn't matter, take your pick. You're taking a look at the servers available, trying to find one that's not full but has a good population so you can get in there and kill the hell out of a few pixelated humanoids. Of course, the other thing you need to worry about is latency. No point in joining a laggy server; that's just asking for trouble and to get your ass handed to you, repeatedly.

So as you're going through the server list you start to notice something: a few of the really popular servers down in the states have some serious ping issues. We're talking 500-600 ms+. You've played on those servers before and know they have a kick ass connection so why the lag all of a sudden?

Enter our fictitious situation: it seems the internet backbone that your traffic would normally go through to get to that server is owned by AT&T. Your internet provider, Telus or Shaw, doesn't have a network agreement with AT&T so your packets get slowed up at the 'gateway'. Let's also say that the only company that has a network agreement with AT&T is Bell/Sympatico. So as you're jerking your way across the screen because your Internet provider wasn't willing to cave and get into an agreement with AT&T, your buddy down the street who uses Bell/Sympatico is having a great time kicking your ass on that very same server with a simply fantastic ping.

Ok so perhaps I'm being overly-dramatic but I'm sure you get the point. How can we possibly think that whatever happens in the States over Net Neutrality will not affect us? We are connected to the US in all ways. Socially. Economically. Culturally. And yes, whatever happens to their Net Neutrality laws, or lack thereof, will most definitely affect us as well.

What can you do? As a Canuck, I'm well aware of the elephant we sleep beside. This is only one of so many issues that we, as Canadians, can do little but watch and hope sanity reigns. Anyone, anyone, with half a brain should be able to see why the Internet must remain neutral. It must! Do not allow the lobbyists to control the fate of the one true platform, the one true voice each of us can take advantage of, for good for for bad. Let us grow this place beyond what it currently is. If you allow them to remove neutrality, everything that we've spent the last 10 years working towards is lost.

Then all you have is sponsored websites from AT&T. With commercials.

And little, if any, choice on how you use the Internet.