Net Neutrality and Guinness

Net neutrality is an issue that’s generated a lot of interest, and more than its fair share of blog posts. I’m loathe to add to the discussion but I was on the Acela train travelling back from NYC this past week and the topic came up among three of us at a table. The fourth person, by the way, was an artist somewhat disinterested in the topic. My two seatmates felt the content provider (Netflix, Amazon, etc.) should compensate the Internet provider (Verizon, Comcast, etc.) for the “extra bandwidth” they used. As you might imagine, I was amazed at their position.

The FCC (and by FCC I mean bureaucrats with slightly flexible ethical centers and future employment opportunity with the companies they oversee) is mucking around with the issue but I see it as an FTC rather than FCC problem. I’m paying for bandwidth (and let’s face it, on even the best days I’ve yet to see the download speed I’m promised) for that last mile and I expect to use it for anything I want. In the somewhat Alice-in-Wonderland logic of the FCC the Internet provider might have the right to charge for that same bandwidth both to me and to the content provider. Really?

Imagine walking into a bar and ordering a pint of Guinness. You order from a surly bartender who, despite the “we care about customer service” signs everywhere, outwardly hates you and demands you pay for your beer a month in advance. Now instead of a pint of the wonderful dark ale with bubbles flowing in the wrong direction he slides you a shot glass full of PBR. The explanation is that Guinness isn’t paying as much as PBR to “send” the beer to you and they are using shot glasses instead of pint glasses to better “manage” the workload on the dishwasher. Still, you need to pay full price. Imagine that happening in a bar in South Boston and what would happen to the bartender.

So let’s please end this net neutrality discussion and ensure that all Internet traffic is treated equally. It’s critical to the future of technology. There’s no “other” point of view on this topic.