Net Neutrality

I have always been interested in Net Neutrality.  The idea kinda fascinates me for some reason.  The arguments in favor of NN seem to fit into one of the following three cases:

1. Don’t control what I can see.
2. Don’t control how fast I can see it.
3. Some may claim that they are fighting for BOTH of the above.

Basically it comes down to what the network providors can do with their networks, their facilities.  According to SaveTheInternet.com these companies want to

“tax content providers to guarantee speedy delivery of their data… to discriminate in favor of their own search engines, Internet phone services, and streaming video — while slowing down or blocking their competitors.“

To further muddy the waters, more and more network providers are entering the content business.  For example, AT&T not only provides the method by which you access the Internet, but they are also in the business of providing content over it; Call Vantage.  I can see where this does provide the possibility of abuse and, as such, cause for concern.  However, I think that we are already operating in a world where this issue has existed, been addressed .

The call has gone out to legislate the ability to view content.  For example, if Time Warner has it’s own video application, people fear that they, Time Warner, would specifically target other video application providers with slower speeds, or even block them completely.  While I tend to agree with the NN proponents, I don’t think that there is much to worry about in this case.  For example, today, you buy your home phone from one of a very few companies; most likely AT&T, Verizon or Qwest.  Have you noticed that AT&T does not block Verizon phone calls?  It doesn’t even block Verizon long distance calls.  Even further still, it doesn’t charge you for calling into or recieving a call from a Verizon phone.  AT&T and Verizon have agreed [or have been legislated] that it is okay to allow pass through communication.  I think the same should apply for the Internet.  I don’t think that AT&T should block Vonage applications.

Now to the second point, and this is the one where I break with the NN guys; controlling how fast I see it.

People [or companies] buy [lease] facilities from the providers to access the Internet.  This means that they are purchasing the actual connection as well as the speed of that connection.  Read again, not only are you buying the connection, but you are buying the speed of that connection.  And to make it even more complicated, communication works only when more than one party is involved. So, lets take an example:

Lets say that I am a writer and start out by writing and making available my books online.  At first my audience is small; limited to my mom.  I make available a 1 MB file and she downloads it.  Every single Internet connection can accommodate this transaction.  Now, as my audience grows, so too do my downloads.  Each individual customer remains the same as my mom; they download a 1 MB file, no problem.  But me–yikes, now I have to begin to account for 10, 100 or even 1000 such requests.  And if I get very successful, I will be even more in demand.  Soon, my puny little Internet connection can not handle the demands and I have to upgrade.

Hmmm, but now, lets go one step further.  Lets say that I now want to sell products where I read my work in real time!  So now, I have products where people download content, my books, as well as where they want to hear live audio.  When I look at it, I guess I am okay with having my customers chug through a bit of a delay in downloading my book–say 35 seconds instead of 30.  But when it comes to my audio broadcast, I NEED them to be able to access it without quality issues.  I need real time service.  I realize that my puny little home broadband connection isn’t enough; I have to upgrade.

And as I upgrade, so too does the provider’s network have to upgrade.  And it costs us BOTH money to do so.

Now, take into account that there are a million such authors as me.  And then there are film producers.  And artists and lions and tigers and bears……Some of us are cool with giving a little in terms of speed [does it really matter if your email gets to it’s destination in 1 second vs 2?  How about 3?  4?….But when you talk about voice, video or, or….stock transactions…..how important is speed then?  Pretty.  And it takes infrastructure to handle that speed.  And, I am guessing, you would be willing to pay for that speed.

So it is with network providers.  To deliver voice and video content at acceptable speeds, they have to build out facilities to do that.  And that costs money.  And that means the cost has to be recouped.  I mean really, who would expect FedEx to charge the same for ground as they do Next Day Air 09:00 AM?