A Good Analogy for the Net Neutrality Issue
Jun 27th, 2006 by Brian A. Thomas
Techdirt has a good analogy for the net neutrality issue:
Finally, the article rolls out the bogus argument that a few others have used before that, if network neutrality applied to the delivery of packages, we’d never have FedEx or UPS because they wouldn’t be able to offer priority service. That’s the wrong analogy, since there’s no barrier to entry into that space in the form of a natural monopoly. If the analogy was to hold, it would be a situation where the government sold off the interstate highways to private companies to manage (the Roadcos), in exchange for reasonable rules that since they were given publicly funded infrastructure, they could not discriminate by vehicle owner who drove on those roads. Now, the Roadcos are coming back and saying they need to rebuild their highways to accommodate more traffic, and in doing so, they want to charge FedEx extra to drive in a special fastlane — while potentially blocking out UPS. Charging more for trucks vs. cars makes sense, and charging more for more usage makes sense. But charging different brands of trucks different amounts raises questions since they have so much control over the network… er… highway. It’s quite difficult for someone to plop down a competing highway next door. There may be local roads, and perhaps one other highway choice, but it’s nowhere near real competition. Hopefully the future will include flying cars that don’t need roads or teleporting or some new technology that wipes out the need for the natural monopoly infrastructure — but we’re just not there yet.
Highways make a good analogy, and I almost have to say “Why didn’t I think of that?” I could just see the Ohio Turnpike blocking UPS trucks from getting on, but taking extra money from FedEx just to get a special faster than normal traffic lane. Perhaps the UPS trucks are allowed on, but in a special throttled lane that is 25 MPH rather than the 65 MPH lane that everyone else uses (save FedEx which paid to get in the 100+ MPH lane)… Very good analogy. Read the rest of the article at TechDirt.
Its simple. The telcos have already said they want to move to a tiered structure. They want to double, tripple, who knows how many times charge everyone (they use Google and eBay as examples as they make tons, but make no mistake, the charges would apply to everyone) for Internet access, access they already paid for once… I would hate to see what Google has to pay each month for their Internet access, undoubtedly they pay millions a year… and that is just what they pay to their Internet provider. What the telcos want is for each telco who’s wires are used between Google’s server and say me, are paid… again they say charge Google, but they would need to charge me as well since I used their wires as well to make the request.
As much as I am against regulation, you can’t ignore the fact that while the telcos say we don’t need any regulation as they haven’t done anything yet, yet have promised their shareholders and told in interviews that they plan to do the very thing they say we don’t need laws to stop them from doing.
