Life in the Network

What is net neutrality? Depending on which side of the fence you are on, the definition and meaning differs. From the Wikipedia entry on Net Neutrality, Columbia Law School professor Tim Wu stated, "Network neutrality is best defined as a network design principle. The idea is that a maximally useful public information network aspires to treat all content, sites, and platforms equally."

What does that mean? I think it means that everyone has a fair chance at using bandwidth. There aren’t any favorites dominating the internet pipeline.

In the article from The Register, AT&T ran a misdirection play in order to consumate their merger with BellSouth. They received so much attention and scrutiny from their adversaries, that they quietly became the entity that was viewed as David in the battle. Poor little AT&T. As they gobbled up their competitors they became a $115bn revenue jaugernaut.

Why isn’t that fair? AT&T has invested time, money and research to upgrade and install their network. They are a government regulated entity but they are a for profit corporation. Aren’t they entitled to protect their investment? Because the internet travels from point A to point B on AT&T equipment, that should allow them the right to make a profit somewhere. Their model suggests that the consumer is already paying access fees so they shouldn’t be the one with the burden. Without the content providers we wouldn’t have a need for ISP’s. Maybe the ISP should bear some of the cost as they also make a profit through their access points.

Is this scenario any different than any of the other government regulated utilities? What about the oil companies? They really deal in pipelines. Do they discrimiate between gas guzzler vehicles and hybrids? The answer is no. They treat every customer the same. Do we worry about gas neutrality? I don’t think so.