SEATTLE – The Federal Communications Commission adopted the net neutrality rules Thursday with three to two votes.
He has several Seattle startups who fear that this decision could affect his chances of success. Twenty-nine Seattle startups have joined more than 1,000 others in the US. Sign a letter to the FCC and ask the President to protect net neutrality. Despite efforts to send letters to the protests, it did not work.
“Very disappointed,” said Joshua Gebhardt, CEO and co-founder of Metricstory.
“Deception, the real disappointment,” said Mike Saffitz, CTO and co-founder of Apptentive.
The FCC has removed the rules that prevent ISPs from blocking or slowing down traffic to certain applications or sites or asking for more money. The president of the FCC said the decision will help Internet providers to grow.
“Broadband investment has shrunk billions of dollars,” said Ajit Pai, president of the FCC.
“The telecom and cable giants are essentially big, lazy, quasi-monopolistic, supported by principles of the free market, I do not think so,” said Gebhardt. The start-up Metricstory helps companies analyze large volumes of web traffic and discover what data is useful, also thanks to machine learning.
“We process gigabytes and terabytes every day, then every hour,” says Gebhardt. Home “Apptentive” helps companies gather feedback about their customers’ mobile apps and help them improve the customer experience.
It is also based on the internet. “We have hundreds of millions of devices that we connect to every day,” said Saffitz.
Both are worried about what the FCC decision will mean for the future of their companies. Metricstory says he is about to make a profit.
“If we take terabytes of data and say, well, you’re the Netflix user transferring 20 gigs of a movie, you have to pay for it.” This is a big expense that we have to take as a company, which means that we have to pass it on to our customers, which means that we do not get that client or hire it” said Gebhardt.
And there is another concern beyond the bottom line. “I think this will be a real barrier to innovation, and I think it’s another thing that business owners need to worry about.” Washington Governor Jay Inslee agreed to the new venture on Thursday, promising to fight the FCC again.
“We are not powerless, we have a significant capacity to protect net neutrality in our state, we want to act,” said Inslee. These new companies are glad that our legislators are coming, but they are also awaiting action beyond the state of Washington. “So it will be a good start, I do not think it’s enough. Basically, I hope we will continue to have the internet with fair and equitable access, and that’s so easy.” said Saffitz.
