Net Neutrality - Will Never Happen
My take is that the Telecoms are trying to put in place the tiered tariff style for the backbone system that they created for the last mile: dial-up / 4 wire no guaranteed speed; dedicated line 56K, Fractional T1, T1, T3 etc which was the traditional way of giving telecom service from 1950s to the 1990s to businesses: going from CO (Central Office) to a business they leaded a line monthly to them and the FCC enforced that rate and level of service.
When the Internet kicked in the Telcos leased many tens of thousands of lines to businesses -- but had to build the backbone up to handle the extra data that they were now getting from these businesses which they had leased the lines to and so the "back office" lines were a "cost" that they could not directly charge (tariff) to the end users per the FCC rules.
Now, they are trying to move that backbone layer down one level into a leasing business tariff layer so they can get money off the of backbone which they had to create because they sold all those last mile circuit leases.
This is akin to what many states and cities are floating around for putting in high speed priority lanes for vehicle commuters -- if you want speed and avoid traffic you pay extra for it.
A "charge to use" transportation system will eliminate a lot of people from using it - those without the necessary money - by putting up a (legal) barrier to keep out the "riff raff" - the same idea is what the telecommunication companies want to do on the net.
Those that pay can play on the new circuits and their data will get there faster - those that cannot then get to use the clogged "free" lanes (which are really paid for indirectly for though normal telco costs but this fact is ignored by all those in charge who set the rules in the FCC Government).
End result: those with money will earn more money and so will the Telcos who can now charge for the long haul backbone circuits they normally do not charge directly for.
When the Internet kicked in the Telcos leased many tens of thousands of lines to businesses -- but had to build the backbone up to handle the extra data that they were now getting from these businesses which they had leased the lines to and so the "back office" lines were a "cost" that they could not directly charge (tariff) to the end users per the FCC rules.
Now, they are trying to move that backbone layer down one level into a leasing business tariff layer so they can get money off the of backbone which they had to create because they sold all those last mile circuit leases.
This is akin to what many states and cities are floating around for putting in high speed priority lanes for vehicle commuters -- if you want speed and avoid traffic you pay extra for it.
A "charge to use" transportation system will eliminate a lot of people from using it - those without the necessary money - by putting up a (legal) barrier to keep out the "riff raff" - the same idea is what the telecommunication companies want to do on the net.
Those that pay can play on the new circuits and their data will get there faster - those that cannot then get to use the clogged "free" lanes (which are really paid for indirectly for though normal telco costs but this fact is ignored by all those in charge who set the rules in the FCC Government).
End result: those with money will earn more money and so will the Telcos who can now charge for the long haul backbone circuits they normally do not charge directly for.
Taking the road analogy further, this means if local governments are allowed to build lanes with public money, then give preferential treatment for people with more money so they can drive from point A to point B on this road - then allowing the Telcos to give preferential treatment to people with more money to get faster network service is THE SAME THING.
If you want to bar Telcos from doing this on the Internet long haul circuits they really should also bar all governments from setting restrictive HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes, toll express lanes, and similar preferential treatment set asides to a select class of users of the road.
If the current US deregulation precedents of the past three decades continues expect this dual tier system to occur in a year but no later than 5 years from now - money talks and saying "free market" enough times will win this change.
See NAFTA.
posted by Tom Philo at 11:51 AM
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