Net Neutrality and the Stifling of Information(innovation/ evolution)

Ok, before we forget about whats soon to be one of the biggest cultural changes to hit the US since the internet, lets discuss what its impacts will probably end up being.

I'm going to make a few predictions here as i tap into my amazingly accurate seer abilities...

1.) i predict a ten year trend where the internet will be like cable TV and only the biggest can afford the bandwith cost

2.) i predict that we will lose many small business's furthering an economic decline and encouraging a larger corporate takeover

3.) we will lose alternative media

4.) the stifling of information and the introduction of state run internet so they can further intrude on our privacy by limiting our choices

Anyone else?

reply to post by onequestion


Net Neutrality is one of the most misunderstood issues going today. It has nothing to do with content, it has everything to do with video, and money.

As an example let's pretend that I own a company that provides streaming video services. Customers give me money and I promise to provide access to all of the kewl movies and such that I have stored in my datacenters. The customers have a reasonable expectation that a certain level of quality will be maintained. The problem is that I have promised to deliver something without owning or controlling the medium of transmission.

Now let's pretend that you run an Internet Service Provider. We have customers in common and some of them are complaining that the video they're getting from me is choppy and frequently hangs.

I call you and I say "hey, you, why isn't my video getting through to my customers?"

You respond with "we limit video to XX% of the bandwidth, in periods of high demand your video may have to wait to get through."

I respond with "you greedy prick, you're throttling my video."

You come back with "yep, you can deal with it, pay to help us upgrade the equipment, or create your own network and deal direct with your customers."

My response is "I don't want to do any of that and I don't think I should have to."

You conclude with "well then, it would appear that you are massively boned. Good day and thank you for calling Comcast."

ISP's do throttle video but it's not aimed at any specific company and they did this even when the FCC net regulations were still in effect. ISPs have Service Level Agreements with their customers, if they fail to meet the targets they're potentially on the hook for a lot of money and running video on demand through their network in a "first in first out" manner and disregarding the class of traffic in general could result in them failing to meet the SLA targets.

There are a lot of opinions out there about what should happen, some people think for example that bandwidth hogs should have to pay more because they're "using" more Internet. My personal opinion is that video is part of the natural evolution of the Internet and the ISP's need to suck it up, upgrade, and drive on.

My predictions, not much at all is going to change from the end user's point of view. Some sites might be taken offline but it won't have anything to do with net-neutrality, it'll be because of court orders from countries who think that their national laws supercede everyone elses desire to say what they want to say (France and Germany I'm looking at you).

My description of how the Internet operates is extremely simplified but you get the gist.

reply to post by Goteborg


Well said. That was probably one of the best and sobering views I've read on this issue. It's so easy to get wrapped up in the politics and agendas, but when you strip it to the bones we see the likely outcomes and reasons for things. Yes you are right though, ISPs need to suck it up and upgrade. Japan has nationwide FREE wifi. I understand that our country is a little bit bigger and monetary interests have already gotten their claws dug deep into the ISP market, but these companies need to get with the times and upgrade.