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Net Neutrality for Dummies
"Net Neutrality Proponents Must Rely on Hypotheticals"
By michaeljmorris on Sun, 03/07/10 - 7:53pm.Almost 5-years ago, I was sitting at a dinner in Las Vegas for Cisco's West Coast customers during Cisco Networkers. I was in good company: A VP from a major bank, a senior engineer from Walt Disney, and consulting engineer from Cisco. We got on the topic of Net Neutrality which was buzzing at the time. I made the case that (1) I hadn't actually seen any problem yet as described by Net Neutrality proponents and (2) wouldn't any problem be solved by the marketplace? If Verizon starts slowing content from Google, you can bet AT&T will be beating down Google's door to sell them bandwidth. At the consumer end, there is DSL, cable modem, wireless, and others. Only collusion of major ISPs (illegal, see Sherman Act) could have a global Internet effect. Sadly, my argument was quickly dismissed. Those at the table felt Net Neutrality laws/regulation were needed; immediately.
I was reminded of this dinner a couple weeks ago when I listened to a really good video on Net Neutrality from Reason.TV. The best line in the video: "Net Neutrality Proponents Must Rely on Hypotheticals". Yeah, it sounds bad....scary. Too bad it hasn't happened yet. Five years later with the explosion of Google, Youtube, Facebook, and the millions of other websites and videos, and still no "slowing" on the Internet by ISPs. Amazing! No problem ever existed and the free market mentality of the Internet has kept it that way.
It's a good video.
More >From the Field blog entries:
Cisco Nexus 5000's Poor Results in Data Center Switching Test
Cisco's Overlay Transport Virtualization (OTV) is New, but has Potential
IPv4 Space is Getting Low - Really Low
Cisco's on to Something with Borderless Networking
Taking Some Time Off From Blogging
Go to Cisco Subnet for more Cisco news, blogs, discussion forums, security alerts, book giveaways, and more.
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- About From the Field
Michael Morris is a communications engineering manager at a $3-billion high-tech company. His background is in enterprise WANs working with telcos and developing large-scale routing designs. He has worked on networks at government and corporate organizations, including networks at two Fortune 10 companies. In his current role, he leads a team of 10 engineers responsible for large-scale IT networking projects and architectural standards for data networks, storage area networks, IP telephony, contact centers, and security. Michael is CCIE #11733 and recently became one of the first three Cisco Certified Design Experts (CCDE) ever (#20080002). He has 11 years experience in networking and communications, including four years as a paratrooper in the U.S. Army. He has a bachelor's degree in MIS from the University at Buffalo and is working on his MBA from NC State University. In 2008, he was awarded the Network Professional Association (NPA) Professional Excellence and Innovation Award for his work on network architecture, templates and enterprise MPLS design.
Michael Morris's From the Field blog is also featured on the Cisco Learning Network. See it there, along with the blogs of other Cisco Experts.
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