The Net Neutrality Debate Resurfaces
In the MIT Technology Review today, there’s another Net Neutrality article. What amazes me is that the writer, Wade Roush, still doesn’t totally GET IT, which is truly amazing being as he’s in Tim Berners Lee country. Roush writes this:
The single biggest future barrier for advocates of strict network neutrality could be simple technological change. The Internet’s newest killer apps–digital video, Voice over IP, and online gaming–chew up much more of the ISPs’ available bandwidth than previous generations of applications did. Video is the biggest bandwidth hog, and it isn’t just coming from commercial sites like iTunes and YouTube. It’s also generated by consumers, who are exchanging unprecedented amounts of video and other data over peer-to-peer file-sharing networks such as BitTorrent but are still paying flat monthly access fees.Networking researchers say it’s unrealistic to expect ISPs to transport all this extra data for free. “The guys who move these huge amounts of data around have to be compensated somehow,” says Hui Zhang, a Columbia University computer scientist who heads a startup, Rinera Networks, that’s focused on giving ISPs more control over the data flowing through their networks. “This whole discussion about net neutrality is going to have to lead to another discussion about usage-based charging.”
Now, note the quote at the end from Hui Zhang, who does get it. The blockquote above is the end of this article. The tone of the article, up until that last quote, seems to be that the Telecomms have some justification in charging more for video. This seems to imply that gatekeeping is okay, as long as it pays for the network. It’s not okay. It’s not okay at all.
Historically, the Telecomms and ISPs have sold “unlimited access” as a gimmick since up until recently there was NO F-ING WAY anyone was going to use any significant bandwidth. Then, with the advent of broadband access, video on the web, and programs like bittorrent, all of a sudden what seemed like a “safe” offer on the part of the Telecomms and ISPs is now a potentially losing proposition, since first of all there is no such thing as unlimited bandwidth, which is what unlimited access implies, and secondly, video is VERY bandwidth intensive.
Historically, the Telecomms were also given BILLIONS of dollars to build out that same network, with tax incentives mandated by the Telecommunications Bill of 1996. They took the money and didn’t build the network.
Now, in the wake of their own idiocy, greed, and outright thievery, they’re faced with the potential for clogged pipes and supposedly smaller profits (note that I said supposedly.) So how are they going to make up this supposed shortfall? By raping the US Taxpayer once again, via ditching Net Neutrality.
We all want to be able to access any web content we want. We don’t want the Telecomms or ISPs prioritizing by either content or filetype. However, that does not preclude them changing pricing structures for internet users, so that those who use the internet to do nothing but access video will pay more than someone who simply surfs for a couple hours a day and checks email. I don’t think any of us would have a problem with a realistic pricing structure whereby those bittorrent users who squander bandwidth pay somewhat more than the rest of us with more modest bandwidth needs. Just don’t tell me what I can access quickly and what’s going to load slowly for me. That would be the DEATH of the internet as we know it.
Now, they also keep crying poverty but I don’t see any more competition out there, and I do see the statements they make to stockholders, assuring them that there will be no price war with the cable companies. What I also see are less and less choices and the end of Local Loop Unbundling, the one regulation that would reintroduce MEANINGFUL competition in telecom and broadband.
This is about CENSORSHIP by size of wallet. Don’t censor the internet. Don’t turn it into Bud TV and the Home Shopping Network. Write your Senators and Congresspeople and tell them you support Net Neutrality.
Technorati Tags: Censorship, Telecomms, Net Neutrality, Local Loop Unbundling, Save The Internet, Broadband Legislation
