We’ve been hearing from plenty of irate Vermonters since the FCC voted 3-2 to gut “Net Neutrality” protections last week. We reached out to Green Mountain Access, our local family-owned Internet Service Provider (ISP) here in central Vermont’s Mad River Valley, and asked how the FCC decision will impact their business model and the thousands of Vermonters served by GMA.

Spokesperson Roger Nishi had this to say:

Bottom line for us, we at GMA will not be changing any of our practices.  We will not block or be paid to prioritize traffic.  We will follow the principles of Net Neutrality as we have in the past.

Why can we say this?  It’s all about our customers and we take care of our customers.  Further, the public has spoken and we have listened.  

If we even ever thought about making changes, we wouldn’t go far.  We don’t have the size or power to negotiate deals for prioritization of traffic nor do we have any incentive either financially or network wise to block or slow traffic to anyone.  

Also, even though it was voted on last week, the order won’t be released until sometime in January.  Then Congress and the courts will get their say.  

And here’s the PR word from Jim Condos, our Vermont Secretary of State.