Category Archives: Net Neutrality

Participants, Not Consumers

I don’t know Bob Pepper very well, but I did talk to him a few times while he was at the FCC, and he always seemed thoughtful and knowledgeable. However, when he says that:
Unfortunately, one key constituency often seems left out of this heated debate: the Internet consumer. This oversight is striking since it is end users who, each day, rely on the Internet to conduct their work and personal lives. What policies should be enacted to ensure their maximum choice and flexibility? Consumer empowerment is where the debate should begin — and end.

— Network Neutrality: Avoiding a Net Loss By Robert Pepper, TechNewsWorld, 03/14/07 4:00 AM PT

I just have to say that he’s missing the point. Continue reading →

Google, Good or Bad?

Well, that depends on the subject and who you ask. It does seem everybody wants to know where the “Do no Evil” company stands. One day there’s a report that Google is maybe going to change its stand for net neutrality. The next there’s a report that it’s definitely not. So who got the scoop on that? The New York Times? Washington Post? Washington Times? The Sun? Continue reading →

Net Neutrality as Status Quo

An article suggesting that Skype’s wireless net neutrality proposal to the FCC would involve a lot of work on the part of the FCC, the carriers, and application vendors such as Skype, there’s this tidbit:
The version of net neutrality the Internet companies are pushing, by contrast, only requires maintaining the status quo by prohibiting broadband providers from changing the way they currently price their services.

— Skype’s Wireless FCC Petition An Uphill Battle, Winning a more open cellular infrastructure will prove a daunting challenge. Robert Poe, VoIPNews, March 2nd, 2007

This is a point that is often omitted from stories about net neutrality. Opponents of net neutrality often try to make out that net neutrality is some innovation that is being imposed on them. History shows quite the opposite: the big telcos and cablecos lobbied the FCC to get rid of net neutrality. Until August 2005, when the FCC changed its rules, we had net neutrality. The only reason we need legislation now to put it back is because of that event. Fortunately, the public is becoming wise to the need for net neutrality. Continue reading →

F2C Followup

I’ve posted a few items about the recent Freedom to Connect conference: OK, that last one wasn’t about a talk or panel, but it was pointed out to me by the participant sitting to my left.

Meanwhile, the conference organizer, David S. Isenberg, is collecting links to everybody’s conference blog posts.

I think it was well worth while.

-jsq

Public Outcry for Net Neutrality

A recent poll says the U.S. public supports net neutrality:
The nationally representative survey found that more than 75 percent of Internet users polled are seriously concerned about not being able to freely choose an Internet service provider or being required to pay twice for certain Internet services. Another 70 percent were concerned about providers blocking or impairing their access to Internet services or sites, such as Internet telephone service or online retailers like Amazon.com. Fifty-four percent want Congress to take action to ensure that Internet providers are prohibited from engaging in these practices.

Importance of the Internet Public Support for Net Neutrality New Survey: Consumers Want Congress to Protect Right to Access Information, Services on Internet, “Network Neutrality” Issue Needs Pro-Active Response from FCC, Congress to Ensure Consumers, Start-Ups Are Not Subject to Discrimination, FCC Commissioner Copps Calls for National Dialogue, ConsumersUnion.org, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2006

This poll was of 1,000 households in November 2005. Continue reading →

Net Neutrality and Innovation

A newspaper article claims that net neutrality is unnecessary and counterproductive:
On the present Internet, ISPs do have control over what information can pass through their infrastructure, but cases of actual unfair discrimination against certain services are extremely rare. Currently, both the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission have authority to enforce competition rules and punish Internet providers for discriminating against unaffiliated services.

Markets, not mandates, for Net, By Dominik Saran, Washington Times, February 28, 2007

Well, yes, the FCC could do that, but in August 2005 it chose to get rid of what remained of net neutrality and to replace it with four vague principles that are not enforced. Continue reading →

EU Sues Germany over DT Broadband

It seems the European Union sees broadband monopolies differently than the U.S. FCC does:
EU spokesman Martin Selmayr told reporters that a letter “of formal notice” was sent to Berlin after it ignored repeated warnings not to adopt legislation that could grant Deutsche Telekom a de-facto monopoly on a new broadband network.

The German parliament on Friday passed the telecommunications law, exempting Deutsche Telekom’s high-speed network from regulation and demands to open up its network to competitors, at least for now.

EU Sues Germany Over Broadband Limits, Associated Press 02.26.07, 8:34 AM ET

Seems like the EU realizes monopoly is bad for competition. Continue reading →

Who Was Gutenberg, Anyway?

Regarding exogenous technological change, it occured to me that I didn’t really know who Gutenberg was, nor whether he fit the profile.

I’m quoting a bio of him in full, because it doesn’t have a copyright on it and I can’t figure out where it came from originally, other than by the style of writing it is probably 19th century or earlier and probably a translation of a German original, and thus likely long out of copyright:

GUTENBERG, JOHANNES, or Henne, who is regarded as the inventor of the art of employing movable types in printing, was born near the close of the 14th century, at Mainz. He was sprung from a patrician family, which took the name of Gutenberg, or Gensfleisch, from two estates in its Possession. Of Gutenberg’s early life no particulars are known, but it seems probable that he devoted himself at an early age to mechanical arts.

Biography of Gutenberg

For “patrician family” then read “middle-class” now. He was apparently a tinker, who might have been tuning cars in the 1950s or computers in the late 20th century or early 21st. Continue reading →

Exogenous Technological Change

Here’s a good backgrounder video on where the Internet came from and where it may be going: Humanity Lobotomy. See especially the part by Larry Lessig about how printing presses in the early days cost about $10,000 in 2007 dollars, and lots of people had one and published books and pamphlets.

What did the telephone companies have to do with inventing the Internet?
Nothing.
The browser?
Nothing.
The World Wide Web?
Nothing.
What have they had to do with the Internet from the beginning of time?
Nothing.

–Bob Kahn

What did they invent? Continue reading →