Net Neutrality

I’ve avoided this subject for a reason, because most people don’t understand it enough to care about it, but I can’t resist mentioning it.

The basic idea is that the telcos think they should be able to charge sites like Google or Amazon for using all of the internet provider’s bandwith. They see it as sending customers to the big websites, and they want their cut.

Normally these big cable and telephone companies foul up by trying to run the internet like it’s a telephone or cable company.

(I’ve mentioned earlier how my old DSL company only routed me along their lines, so when a server in chicago went down, I couldn’t access any websites hosted in Chicago. As if there were only 1 way into the city).

This is just flawed thinking. The internet is NOT similiar to a telephone or cable infastructure. It just uses the same lines. I know that’s a hard distinction to make, but it’s crucial.

In the phone industry, I pay for who I call. If I make a long distance call to India, they recipient in India doesn’t pay for it.

In the cable TV world, I pay the company for access to channels that they in turn paid the content provider for. If Comcast wants to carry ESPN, they pay ESPN, and I pay Comcast.

Now, I’m already paying Comcast to access the internet. What the big companies want to do is now charge Google or Amazon for me accessing them. But I’m already paying. And if they do charge the big websites, guess who’s going to pay on both ends? The consumer.

If Amazon gets stuck with a charge from internet providers, you can bet prices are going to rise.

Do we really need to give PayPal another reason to add another surcharge?

It’s time for the telcos to start replacing their management with people who understand what the internet is and how it works.

July 5th, 2006