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The FCC Wants To Extend Net Neutrality To VR Technology

Virtual Reality is still a relatively new space in the market in its current form, although it is by no means the first attempt at VR technology that has been offered to consumers. Having said that, it is by far the most successful at this point in time and is moving towards a more populated space as more and more consumers begin to dive into its slightly detached experiences from actual reality, and much like any other place on the internet, the FCC’s Tom Wheeler is preparing to get online virtual reality worlds labeled under the same Net Neutrality standards.

While at this point in time no regulations have been set for the technology, Wheeler recently made his plans clear about the state of online VR experiences and that Net Neutrality should apply to them just as any other online locations. As Augmented Reality tech is not too far from what Virtual Reality offers, naturally, Wheeler states that the FCC’s plan is to lump it in with VR under these regulations too. Wheeler’s initiative to get a head start on VR and AR follows his recent visit to the Virtual Human Interaction Lab at Stanford University, where he spoke to VR expert Jeremy Bailenson who heads up the lab.

With VR already available to many consumers and with even more options on the way, VR only stands to get bigger and that will lead to more development of the software and online experiences that can be used in conjunction with the hardware. The idea of the visit to talk to Bailenson was for Wheeler and the FCC to learn more about VR and AR. Wheeler has cited concerns over privacy as an emerging problem with both of these new technologies which Bailenson discussed by drawing attention to the example of how VR technology could potentially track every movement a person using VR technology makes, and how that valuable data could be used by companies and the government to track individuals even if people used anonymous connections. Alongside matters of privacy, Wheeler also inquired about what types of bandwidth might be needed for online virtual worlds and 360-degree VR video content.