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Thank you for Wayne Rashs interesting and comprehensive coverage of net neutrality [“The 4 Faces of Net Neutrality,” Aug. 7].
I look on net neutrality as something like universal postal service. I believe everyone should have equal access to the Internet, just as they do to postal service. The difference, of course, is that the end user pays for Internet service while the sender pays for postage.
Im not advocating Internet “postage.” Rather, what would be good for the Net is that every user, regardless of how remote, pays the same amount (ideally, zero, to ensure that even the poorest folks have access) for service—just as we pay the same to send a letter anywhere, whether next door or to American Samoa.
Now, this does not answer the question of how to deal with resource-intensive users. Is it an issue of access to bandwidth or of actual bandwidth used? Can it be compared to the electric utilities, which charge both for energy used and for peak demand?
In the end, what I want to see is that the customer/user has equal access to as much bandwidth as needed at as little cost as possible.
Rev. Charles F. Shelby
Vice Chancellor
Office of Advancement
DePaul University
Chicago