This week in class, we discussed the case of Verizon cutting it’s mobile data speeds, making the service unusable for California’s fire department at crucial times when they needed to respond to wildfires, and how this sparked a widespread net neutrality debate. I was interested in what the ramifications of this situation were for both parties and decided to look further into the aftermath of this event.
One of the first results I found was a lawsuit that was ordered to restore net neutrality to those working at the federate level at all times. It was found that Verizon had restricted high speed data devices in emergency response vehicles during 3 separate occasions since 2017. First responders rely on high speed data to get track progress, organize efforts, and determine the fastest routes for response vehicles.
It was proven that the ISP’s would work in Verizon’s economic favor because it would be charging more for a higher speed plan, so this was a definitely a case of net neutrality. Since then, Verizon has issued an apology. Original article can be found here.
Another outcome of this was a video ad Verizon put out called “Enabling Heroes” where the service acts as though they have always been a critical helper to first responders, but in reality have just caused more problems for them in the past few recent events. One line in the video said “In times of crisis, their calls go through and they can get the job done.” Viewers were quick to criticize Verizon in the comments section to the point where Verizon had to disable the comments feature. These viewers pointed out that it took first responders 2 full months at the cost of many homes and lives to put out this fire, which maybe could have been accomplished in less time had there not been communication issues. In a separate blog post, Verizon stated “Our innovation and technology allow first responders to do their jobs. What we do is save lives,” which is just scary to imagine that a cellular service thinks that first responders would be clueless or wouldn’t know what to do in their own jobs without their help. They were essentially taking credit for the aid in these emergencies. You can only imagine the response they got from the public in light of these events. This article contains the original video ad and blog post.
stephmt.com 