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The Four Faces of Net Neutrality

For Dr. René Alvarez, a surgeon from Homer, Alaska, the debate surrounding network neutrality isn’t about the digital minutia of speeds and tiered services; it could be about life and death.

For his patients in Alaska’s interior, the Internet isn’t a link to movies and games. “The Internet,” he said during a recent meeting in Boston, “is their lifeline, their link to the outside world.”

Alvarez’s biggest fear is that patients living in small towns in Alaska’s interior aren’t in a position to shoulder any additional increase in Internet access charges.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, a somewhat larger town such as Bethel, Alaska, has a per capita income of $12,602, which is about half the poverty level for a family of four in Alaska. An increase in Internet access could discourage the use of remote medicine, especially if it’s viewed as a bandwidth-intensive, upper-tier service, Alvarez said.

It is unclear how Alvarez and his patients will ultimately be affected by the nuances of the net neutrality debate in Washington, especially when few actually agree on a definition.

[…]

Lost in the debate are the concerns of millions of forgotten stakeholders such as Alvarez; Kimberly Johnson, a Washington-based educator; Tom McInerney, CEO at Internet startup Guba; and Ralph Riley, product marketing manager for Siemens Communications.

[…]

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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