With the death of net neutrality, wireless providers now have the ability to throttle and slow down communications speeds to users, forcing them to pay more for higher service speeds. Verizon seems to be the first cellular provider that has taken advantage of this in a public manner, and consumers are not happy.
Currently, wildfires are raging across the west coast, and California responders are in desperate need to be in touch with each other in order to aid the citizens. But, Verizon took advantage of their dire need and decided to throttle data usage so that the Santa Clara County fire department would have to upgrade their plans, increasing the prices they would have to pay by over 100 percent.
Cell phone speeds were running at 1/200th their normal speed during the crisis, and Verizon confirmed that they did indeed throttle the speeds. Now, lawmakers are creating specific measures so that, in emergency situations, data cannot be throttled in any way, shape or form.
But still, this shows how the FCC repealing net neutrality is going to drastically affect the future of the communications world. If consumers who pay for cellphone service and data usage are being denied access just so big brands like Verizon can make more money, more disastrous situations such as the Mendocino Complex fire could become a regular occurrence.
Verizon says it was an error on their part, but that could very well be a cover-up for a malicious, money-making scheme.
