Traffic Is Way Up and the Internet Seems Fine. Did We Maybe Spend Too Much Time Ferociously Debating Net Neutrality?-- Ricochet

Traffic Is Way Up and the Internet Seems Fine. Did We Maybe Spend Too Much Time Ferociously Debating Net Neutrality?-- Ricochet
"A 1990 coronavirus pandemic would have been even worse than today’s version...no internet economy to keep us connected via Facebook, Google Meet, and Zoom. 
And no Amazon to bring us all manner of essential items without breaking quarantine.
...So thank goodness the internet hasn’t buckled, much less broken. 
Unlike in Europe, for instance, Netflix and YouTube haven’t been forced to slow down streaming speeds and reduce video quality due to higher usage. 
Everything here still seems to be working pretty well. 
But it’s easy to imagine that not being the case. 
As journalist Charles Fishman reports in The Atlantic, US internet traffic carried by AT&T surged 20 percent in mid-March, with workweek network traffic now up a steady 25 percent from the pre-pandemic period.
“That may not sound like much,” Fishman explains, “but imagine suddenly needing to add 20 percent more long-haul trucks to U.S. highways instantly, or 20 percent more freight trains, or 20 percent more flights every day out of every airport in the country. 
In fact, none of those infrastructure systems could have provided 20 percent more capacity instantly—or sustained it day after day for months.”
Yet our digital infrastructure has met the challenge. 
Or to put it another way, all those hysterical predictions about how repealing net neutrality back in 2018 would ruin the internet haven’t panned out...
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