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Insight on Net Neutrality

Posted by John Bartell on Sep 28, 2009 in General, Net Neutrality, Regulation

Net Neutrality

The Washington Post’s lead editorial is on Net Neutrality today. Not my position exactly, but interesting and well written.

Ok, let’s think.  What is a good analogy for the Internet and Net Neutrality.  How about the phone system? I know of no phone numbers I cannot call. My use of modems is unhindered as far as I know, not that I need one anymore. But, when I did need one, I could use it all I wanted. I have complete Net Neutrality on my phone lines. Should broadband be any different? What do you think? I think with social media sounding the alarm, and competitive pressure, all carriers (mobile, wireless broadband, FTTH, DSL, cable) will be forced to full Net Neutrality, or very close, so the arguments to the contrary may be wasted effort.

Large bit pipe

Footnote

When I stayed in a beach condo about 10 years ago and tried to use my laptop’s modem, it would disconnect after about a minute or so every single time it connected. The guy at the front desk said I could use his ISDN line because the phone lines were noisy (voice sounded fine to me) owing to the building being situated on an island (he did not realize I knew much more about telecom than he did). Hmmm, sounds like they put some modem detector on the outgoing phone lines to keep their telephony costs down. What they did not realize is that this device was keeping their revenue down as well. I have never stayed there since.

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One Response to “Insight on Net Neutrality”

  1. admin says:
    October 3, 2009 at 2:54 pm

    The Washington Post owns a cable company called Cable One. Cable One provides broadband Internet services and over 10% of The Washington Post’s revenue, so perhaps their article was more than an editorial. I could not find a disclosure on their ownership of a cable company anywhere in the article, though it was posted (indignantly) in the article’s comments sometime after I read the article.

    More info on Cable One from Wikipedia

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cable_One

    and the Cable One website

    http://www.cableone.net/Pages/default.aspx .

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