Is Net Neutrality Rollback an Opportunity for Community-Based Providers?

On May 18th, the FCC will vote on a proposal by Chairman Ajit Pai to rollback the FCC's previous decision to classify ISP's as common carriers and codify net neutrality. Instead, Pai and his fellow GOP appointee Michael O'Reilly want to let ISP's regulate themselves and commit to net neutrality voluntarily.

Consumer advocates are crying foul, claiming that internet giants like Comcast and others will not play fair if the rules don't exist.

However, small community based providers have the opportunity to use lack of net neutrality to their advantage. Just like most small providers have not implemented data caps on customers, it is unlikely that they will be take any actions that would violate the spirit of the open internet. So one approach could be to communicate with customers a strong statement on net neutrality that your company will follow voluntarily to put their minds at ease and, possibly, to contrast with the competition. Community-based providers already place a great deal of trust in their local ISP's. Communicating your own open internet philosophy reinforces that trusted image.

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