Well, it didn’t take long for 2025 to pull the rug out from under us. On January 2nd, an appeals court struck down net neutrality. Gone. Just like that. The rules that once prevented ISPs from throttling, blocking, or prioritizing traffic are toast. Now the big dogs—Comcast, AT&T, Verizon—have the green light to carve up internet traffic like a Vegas buffet. And let me tell you, Brother, the small shops at the table are about to get crumbs.

I’ve been watching this play out for years in the Phoenix metro IT trenches. Net neutrality always felt like the duct tape barely holding together a system built on greed and monopolies. But at least it was something. Now? If you’re a small business, a startup, or just some scrappy kid building the next great thing in their garage—prepare to pay up, or get buried under paid-priority data lanes that favor the ones with deep pockets and deeper lobbyist benches.

This isn’t just about streaming speeds or Netflix buffering. This is about infrastructure access—core business functionality. If your cloud app is throttled because your competitor paid for preferred bandwidth, how do you compete? If your video calls glitch out while your Fortune 500 neighbor’s stream is buttery smooth, what message does that send to your clients? It’s digital gerrymandering, plain and simple.

As a tech pro who’s spent decades optimizing systems for cost-efficiency and performance, I’ll say this: it’s time to rethink the stack. Diversify providers, explore decentralized tech where possible, and consider setting up localized caching and content delivery to mitigate slowdowns. Small business owners—lean on your IT folks more than ever. We’re going to need strategy over speed, resilience over reliance.

Final thought, Brother: The free internet was never truly free—but now the illusion’s been stripped away. So let’s stay sharp, stay nimble, and build networks—not just in code, but in community. Because the only way to survive the coming bandwidth wars is to band together.