flynn23 wrote:
Unfortunetly being "informed" of the issue doesn't lead people to the root problem. It just polarizes everyone on the basis of "big business" versus "freedom", which is utterly insane. The issue has always been, and will continue to be, monopoly of access to the resource. The best solution to that which I've heard is to put the plant into a public trust and force every provider to lease it. In my mind, that's still suboptimal, but it's better than what we have today.

Thanks for these comments. I agree. I don't think a blanket promise of "network neutrality" is the right way to resolve the issue. Basically I think that a more nuanced approach of case by case analysis will work better. Net Neutrality is a good principal that can guide that debate, but it shouldn't be a law. There are all kinds of ways to provide enhanced performance for particular applications that I don't think we want to ban. Akami is a simple example. I also think there are clearly examples that are anti-competitive that perhaps we ought to ban in monopoly situations, such as the context where an ISP drops all traffic from a competitors VoIP offering.

I think there are cases in the middle that I'm not sure how I'd resolve. For example, in France, you can get an ATM (yup) circuit run to your house, with three IP connections running on it. One of these connections provides general internet access, one provides IPTV, and one provides Voice over IP. Each has it's own virtual circuit back to the phone company's POP with a fixed bandwidth. All three are essentially ethernet sub interfaces on your home lan. You can IP your laptop on the IPTV address space but it won't do you much good because there is no transit gateway on that network. Now, I'll bet that the VoIP you get down that VoIP VC is much more reliable than the VoIP you could get down the general internet pipe from another company. Should it be illegal for phone companies in the US to do the same thing? I don't see why.

I can think of things I would disagree with, such as the idea that you HAVE to buy that VoIP VC in order to by internet access and there is no competitor. We see similar things done with land lines in the USA all the time.... Gotta have a pots line to buy DSL. I don't think thats right. But I also don't think the phone companies should be prohibited from offering this kind of service.

I can see how they might use this sort of issue as a wedge in the debate about infrastructure improvements, but if thats the case I think this video is them winning. I think what we really need is leadership from Congress and perhaps the FCC that says we need more bandwidth, and I think debating net neutrality diverts attention that discussion.

RE: Save the Internet!