Net Neutrality Has Few Real World Counterparts

Does Net Neutrality Make Sense?

The Inquirer is running a story about AT&T’s claims that net neutrality is “oppressive”. Interesting. (Another good article is at PCWorld, here.)

The concept behind net neutrality is simple: Everybody is treated the same when it comes to prioritization on the data pipes that feed the Internet.

On the face of it, this makes a lot of sense. If an Internet provider, such as AT&T or Verizon, is able to arbitrarily decide who gets more priority on their data pipes, then there is a strong possibility that AT&T and Verizon will manage the flow of information to their benefit.

A common comparison when it comes to net neutrality are roads. We all use them. They’re critical to our infrastructure, and we pay for them with taxes. So we should get equal use, right?

But that’s not always the case.

Take for example toll roads. Toll roads are often built as a way to bypass a busy or long road, and instead of spreading the cost across the entire tax base, toll roads instead rely on users of that road to fund its development. Further, people typically have the option of not using the toll road, although at the cost of convenience. In other words, people that use toll roads are willing to pay the extra expense for the faster rate of travel.

So perhaps toll roads aren’t the best example.

What about phones running on the landline POTS network? In the US, flat rates for landline phones are the norm. The cost of a POTS line in my house is probably comparable to your cost, even though we live in different parts of the country.

But, again, this isn’t totally true.

As a business, I pay more per line than you do as a consumer. Often considerably more. And for that added expense, I get a different level of service. If my phone lines go down, then I have a higher priority for repair than the consumer living in the house next to my business. Why? Because I pay more. The same goes for a T1 line compared to a DSL connection.

So perhaps landline phones aren’t a good example either.

I can go further, and say how I can pay my ISP to prioritize my VOIP traffic. This is a value-add service. And it’s not free.

So what is intrinsically “correct” about net neutrality?

• Microsoft
• AT&T
• Google
• net neutrality
• Verizon