Something needs to be clarified in the Net Neutrality debate:
Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, Time Warner Cable and other ISPs are NOT technology companies. They are infrastructure companies. They provide access to the web using technology but are not in themselves technology companies. They do their best to act and look otherwise but they are infrastructure.
Why am I mentioning this? Because of this ridiculous article from Forbes about why Net Neutrality is dumb (found through the great breakdown at BGR). It has the wonderful line:
However, if tech companies like Comcast, Verizon, AT&T and the like are allowed to make a profit and run this critical component of our economy aren’t we putting this responsibility in better hands?
Change the phrase “tech companies” to “infrastructure companies” and the entire point of the article changes. Net Neutrality is an issue of forcing the middle infrastructure companies to behave in connecting customers to tech companies. If the infrastructure companies in the middle create a perception of being tech companies themselves then of course net neutrality as being argued makes no sense.
The debate shouldn’t be whether all connections from customers to the internet cost the same – a 10MBps connection should cost less than 20MBps connection which will cost less than a 1GBps connection. The question is whether I should be allowed to call Atlanta for the same price as it costs me to call New York, San Francisco or St. Louis. The call gets routed the same way regardless but, rightly, most long distance calls are either free or a single price.
The internet should operate on the same principle. If I pay for a 20MBps connection and I am under whatever datacap that may exist on my account then I should have the same access to Netflix, Youtube, Google or whatever brand new service may be coming out.
It’s really quite simple.