the issue of net neutrality

The idea of a two-tier internet is looming, according to some commentators on the recent rejection by US politicians of the principle of internet neutrality. BBC article.

I suspect many of us have come to take for granted that all internet traffic, whether it be email, web-page downloads, personal photo uploads, streaming video or chatting is all treated in an egalitarian way by the companies providing the physical network infrastructure. A two-tier system would presumably imply an internet environment where those with the means could enjoy a level of service and media material not available on a lower level. Perhaps that great little website you've been working on will only be viewable by every online user if you've paid extra to have it on the high level internet, rather than the regular internet that doesn't go everywhere.

Time will tell. It's disturbing. Perhaps it was at our peril that we took the net's neutrality as given - after decades of a broadcast media landscape dominated by the mostly one-way traffic from the megaliths of commercial programming.