Net Neutrality and the Car Wash Industry

[DiamondWash]

How will the Car Wash Industry be affected now this has happened?

 

[Earl Weiss]

From wnat perspective? If it is for processing credit card, probably very littel since bandwidth use is nominal. Likely same factos apply for axessing your website unless you have long videos to download.

 

[Overachiever]

I think it really depends on what the ISPs choose to do with all the power. If they choose to make the internet more like cable TV and you have to pay more to get to Google, and the majority of your customers find your car wash on Google, then it could hurt you. If they make another package where you can't go to Youtube without paying some higher fee, and all the videos of how awesome your car wash is are hosted there then people won't be able to watch them unless they have that package. If your marketing revolves around Facebook and they make it more costly to go there then you'll likely be hurt from that.

They can pretty much do anything now, like make certain websites slow, charge more for you to get to certain websites, block certain content, etc.

 

[JacksonV]

Yes, I'm curious to see how this will affect the forum industry, too, if at all.

 

[DiamondWash]

I was just introduced to 200 Mbps Download 50 upload speed from my internet provider that's insane I was excited just get to 40Mbps this year that tells me something.

 

[robert roman]

How will the Car Wash Industry be affected now this has happened?

Bottom line, net neutrality will allow ISP’s to block or throttle user access. Then ISP’s will charge people money to circumvent blocks and step on the throttle.

Its pretty simple, ISP’s will now be allowed to get money for something that used to be free, essentially.

Once this starts costing people money on Facebook, I believe it will cause a **** storm of epic proportions.

 

[cebo]

"Net neutrality" is only 2 years old. The internet did pretty good from when Al Gore invented it till 2015 when the Obama Administration implemented it. http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/05/no-the-fcc-isnt-overturning-net-neutrali.

 

[JustaGuy]

cebo has it right. Everyone is crying that the sky is falling, but this just puts the Internet back to where it was two years ago. Were ISPs charging money for access to specific types of network services or sites two years ago? No. Were they throttling access to Google, Facebook, Twitter, or whatever? No.

Access to the internet is different than access to cable. Cable companies have government protected monopolies, making it easier for them to do what they do. But ISPs normally do not have a monopoly in internet access anymore - yes, your local cable company is a big player in that space, but most of the time you have other options - and *that* is a big reason why I don't think we'll see much, if any, change with the removal of so-called net neutrality.

 

[mac]

Look people. Wake up. Stop listening to the drive by media. Would someone please tell me why companies would start to pi## off their customers because now they can? And is THIS the big thing you are worrying about? Look at the swamp. That is what you all should be worrying about.

 

[Overachiever]

The ISPs spent hundreds of millions fighting to kill net neutrality. I guess I don't see why they'd do that if they had no interest in profiting from it.

 

[Melmatic]

The changes in net neutrality are going to be slow, and nothing to worry about right now, but it does open up a lot of strange possibilities like dirty marketing tricks and rising costs. I'll mention a few arguments below, however, I firmly believe in the wait-and-see stance because a lot of this will be tied up in court for at least another year.

THE MAIN CONCERNS ARE:
-Cost
-Technology
-Global competition
-Fair business practices
-Quality
-Monopolies
-Passing measures un-democratically

Costs - Your marketing costs are going to increase. Not today, but eventually. You've seen changes in Facebook marketing this past October. Previous to the algorithm changes, your page content displayed directly to people who liked your page. This is no longer the case. Now you pay for ads and boosts in order to have your content seen by those who like your page. These costs are subject to inflation based on engagement rates. Example: If no one engages with your ad at $3, it will cost $6 the following month to be seen by your dedicated audience. These costs are addictive often do not offer substantial conversion rates.

(Interesting Sidenote: There is currently a court case in motion to classify this as online gambling in the EU)

Technology & Global Competition - The United States does not rank in the top ten of ISP speeds, so we're already not able to compete on a global level. (South Korea is double the USA in average internet speed). Because the repeal of net neutrality, increasing internet speed will no longer be a technology investment for internet providers, allowing the USA to fall further behind. If you were to access a USA site from a more advanced country, it might make us look behind the times. This would be important to worldwide industries.

Fair Business Practices - Now that operation are no longer governed by the FCC, competitors will be able to pay to block your site, direct your traffic to theirs, pay to access your google codes, claim your business as theirs, overload your sites, etc. Without a governing body addressing consumer complaints, it's the Wild West before the sheriff comes to town. If you do not have a competitive business, you'll be fine. If you do, you could be sunk. That's where the arguments that repealing net neutrality does not operate fairly for business/support small business comes from.

Quality - Currently, online advertisement is based on quality of content and how users engage with your content. That will change to whoever pays most, so we will be losing a creative edge. Advertisements based on who pays most perpetuates invasive advertising (think pop-ups, like not being able to continue to a site without signing up).

Monopolies & Un-Democratic Behavior - This was passed when the committee called a recess and then quickly voted before everyone was back, before the scheduled vote time. The people on the committee have direct links to some pretty large corporations that stand to benefit. People feel that this was cheating and shouldn't stand legislatively, and this is what most people are upset about. The monopolies are based on location, and have existed for a long time. There's a few places in the USA that have set up their own ISPs for their communities to address the monopoly concerns. One is in Washington State. They have the fastest internet speed in the USA and are very interesting. I recommend reading more about that if you're interested in this topic.

But, like I mentioned earlier, I feel it's much too early to adjust marketing at this point in time. In order to prepare, I am working on expanding analytics and data collection so we can make informed decisions later on.

 

[soapy]

R and D development should pickup again. It has cut way back since 2015. Rural areas are still not served well and might give companies more incentive to upgrade things again.

 

[OurTown]

"Net neutrality" is only 2 years old. The internet did pretty good from when Al Gore invented it till 2015 when the Obama Administration implemented it. http://reason.com/blog/2017/12/05/no-the-fcc-isnt-overturning-net-neutrali.

I agree about the comments on net neutrality. I can understand concerns many people have about throttling. However, our Internet Service Provider always had three speed levels, for which we had to pay a higher amount to get the faster speeds. Is that not throttling? In addition, their own custom search engine would sometimes take over our browsers when we perform a search. This was before Net Neutrality was repealed. After the announcement, our ISP sent us a letter saying they were giving us the next faster plan for free. If anything, this has helped the ISPs provide better service to us because their hands aren't tied as much.
In my humble opinion and for what it's worth, I don't think any of us will see much of an effect on our businesses or personal lives.

I'm not trying to be a smart a** but, the Internet was not invented by Al Gore. He was a senator at the time, and while he had helped shape policy, he did not invent the Internet. Part of what I teach at high school involves the history of the Internet. Most people don't know that it started way back in the 60's as a DARPA project. It, like many other technologies, was a government project that evolved into what we have today. The following article outlines the history:
https://www.internetsociety.org/internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet/

 

[OurTown]

I appreciate your post, Melmatic. I think most of the affects you mention are speculation, however. Aren't there other laws in place to protect small businesses from the kinds of unfair practices you mentioned? Also, if you have the correct security in place on your hosting server, you've less to worry about regarding real URL hijacking, which is URL forwarding. You'd have to be a big target with a competitor willing to work hard enough (or pay enough) to pull it off-- and that's assuming the ISP would do it. I would imagine they have less to gain from that kind of practice than what is being hyped.
The Internet was getting along just fine prior to Net Neutrality in 2015 - there are some that believe that this regulation of the Internet was deceptive legislation. Back then, the fight was about keeping an "open Internet" when 'Net Neutrality' actually imposed regulations.

In my opinion, time will tell. It'll all come out in the wash.

 

[cebo]

I agree about the comments on net neutrality. I can understand concerns many people have about throttling. However, our Internet Service Provider always had three speed levels, for which we had to pay a higher amount to get the faster speeds. Is that not throttling? In addition, their own custom search engine would sometimes take over our browsers when we perform a search. This was before Net Neutrality was repealed. After the announcement, our ISP sent us a letter saying they were giving us the next faster plan for free. If anything, this has helped the ISPs provide better service to us because their hands aren't tied as much.
In my humble opinion and for what it's worth, I don't think any of us will see much of an effect on our businesses or personal lives.

I'm not trying to be a smart a** but, the Internet was not invented by Al Gore. He was a senator at the time, and while he had helped shape policy, he did not invent the Internet. Part of what I teach at high school involves the history of the Internet. Most people don't know that it started way back in the 60's as a DARPA project. It, like many other technologies, was a government project that evolved into what we have today. The following article outlines the history:
https://www.internetsociety.org/internet/history-internet/brief-history-internet/

Actually I was being a smarta$$ on the Al Gore comment as I well aware of the beginnings of the net. He made the statement back in the day that he did invent it and was ridiculed for it. Goes along with the sky is falling on NN.

 

[OurTown]

Actually I was being a smarta$$ on the Al Gore comment as I well aware of the beginnings of the net. He made the statement back in the day that he did invent it and was ridiculed for it. Goes along with the sky is falling on NN.

Sorry, cebo. I didn't pick up on the sarcasm there, though I find it hard to tell sometimes

I know what you mean about 'the sky is falling' attitude surrounding this and other topics. My family thinks the economy is doing worse than before the election even though they are seeing new housing units being built everywhere, and packed restaurants, and lines wrapped around the stores at Christmas... My husband's IRA account is getting almost 20% interest. I haven't seen it like this in many many years but people are believing their Facebook feeds, the news and friends nonsense over what they can see with their eyes.

 

[cebo]

Veiled sarcasm is the best. LOL. All issues today end up being scorched earth fabrications by both sides. That's why I joined the LP (lp.org) 25 years ago. Social media news is going to be the ruin of the country. For everybody that loved government regulation and limited competition should remember the old AT&T monopolies. Two or three bucks a minute for a toll call 100 miles away back in the 70's. My first cell phone cost $60 a month for 30 minutes, plus roaming etc. All because the feds would only license an A or B carrier. There are just as many large companies for NN as there are against it.