On Feb. 26, 2015, the Federal Communication Commission voted to reclassify the Internet as a telecommunication service, like telephone or television companies, rather than an information service.

As an Internet scholar, I am overjoyed but wonder if people realize how big this decision is or what the consequences would have been if the FCC had not acted.

At issue is the ability of the FCC to enforce an existing regulation known as “net neutrality,” which is “the Internet’s guiding principle: It preserves our right to communicate freely online” according to savetheinternet.com’s article “Net Neutrality: What You Need to Know Now.”

If net neutrality were eliminated from FCC regulations, telecom companies would have the right to exploit Internet technologies by monitoring, controlling or blocking data sent via their networks. Our right to communicate freely online would begin to erode quickly.

The main backers of maintaining net neutrality are among the Silicon Valley companies such as Netflix, Etsy and Twitter. With the recent FCC ruling, they win out against some of the most powerful interests in Washington, including telecom companies like Verizon, AT&T and Comcast, which manage most home and office Internet access in this country. Cox Communications is a local example.

What does this mean to us, the people? Can you imagine this country today if the telephone companies had the right to decide if you could have a telephone and who you could call, if radio stations decided if you could have static-free radio without overlapping station signals and if TV broadcasters decided if you could see quality channels over the public airwaves?

Fortunately, you don’t have to because our government considers these media essential telecommunication services.

Classifying the Internet as such allows the FCC to apply well-established “common carrier” regulations: “Common carriage prohibits the owner of a network…from discriminating against information by halting, slowing, or otherwise tampering with the transfer of any data,” according to aclu.org’s, “What Is Net Neutrality?”

Without this change, the telecom companies would have been able to create a multi-tiered system of access out of the Internet, allowing them to deliberately halt, slow or otherwise tamper with the transfer of any data they didn’t like and/or demand users pay extra for faster online speeds.

The Internet has become central to modern life in this country and around the world. If telecom companies were allowed to decide who can participate and at what cost, users would become hostage to corporate earnings at the expense of democratic discourse.

The principle of net neutrality must remain at the core of the Internet if we, the people, are to continue to enjoy the equal access and speeds we currently take for granted.