 Net Neutrality
The Hottest Topic on Internet Broadband
Should Telecoms Split the Internet in Half?
The Internet is a unique national resource. On the Internet as we know it, everyone is connected on the same pipes. We call this Net Neutrality. The proposed two-tier Internet offers preferential treatment for those who pay more. It is the opposite of Net Neutrality.
 What Does Net Neutrality Mean?
Network neutrality is the founding cornerstone of the Internet. It means that Internet providers can’t speed up or slow down the delivery of Web content. It means that Internet providers cannot discriminate based on who owns, ships or receives the content. They are not allowed to selectively interfere with the content that runs across the pipes. The New York Times, Home Depot, mySpace and your favorite church move their data on the same level playing field.
The policy of net neutrality on the Internet gives everyone equal access to web services and content. It prevents telecommunication companies from discriminating among users of the Internet. Net neutrality has been the rule since the Internet started.
With Net Neutrality, the Internet allowed creative ideas to flourish and become successful, ideas like Wikipedia, Yahoo, Google, YouTube and eBay.
If you think about it, Net Neutrality is an extension of our rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution, which guarantees freedom of speech. The Internet is our voice, and we must all have the equal right to use “our voice.”
Net Neutrality has allowed the Internet to become a truely competitive communication universe, with low barriers to entry, freedom of information, freedom of choice and equal opportunity.
What is a Two-Tier Internet?
The proposed Two-Tier Internet is the opposite of net neutrality. Big Telecom companies want to abandon Net Neutrality and replace it with a Two Tier Internet, and a Two-Tier fee schedule. With a two-tier Internet, they would charge higher fees for faster Internet service. Websites and web publishers will have to pay these fees for faster delivery of their content. The pages you see could come to you on the fast lane or on the slow lane.
The proposed change would not speed up data from paying sites. Ironically, the change would slow down data from non-paying sites. Technically, this slowdown could be accomplished by deliberately ”losing” data packets, or by rerouting data the “long way” home.
In reality, there will not be a fast Internet and a slow Internet. All the content will still travel the same Internet pipelines. Instead, there will be content that is deliberately slowed down along the Internet because the sender didn’t pay the Two-Tier Toll.
How slowly will the slow content travel the Internet? This is presumably up to the Big Telecoms. In a worst-case scenario, they could slow content down until everyone is obliged to cough up the fee for Top Tier speed. Some people might call this practice “extortion.” Remember, Top-Tier speed simply uses the full capability of the Internet.
Under a Two-Tier service, the benefits of any future improvements in Internet technology would belong to the Big Telecoms. Big Telecoms would deprive people of those benefits and charge extra for them.
Who Owns the Internet?
The giant telecom companies, Verizon, AT&T, Qwest, Level 3 and Sprint-Nextel, as well as Comcast and Time Warner, own the backbone of the Internet. The last mile of the Internet, which connects the home or office, is owned by companies too numerous to mention.
Lumeta Corp created a visual map of the Internet in the United States as of March, 2006. It identifies the portion of the backbone each telecom owns.
http://advice.cio.com/themes/CIO.com/cache/Internet_map_labels_0.pdf
How Do the Telecoms Make Their Money Now?
The U.S. government paid the Big Telecoms for the cost of building and maintaining the Internet. End users like you, sitting in the office and at home, pay cable and phone companies for Internet access, dial-up, cable or DSL. All websites also pay their site host a monthly fee that is based on the volume of data sent out onto the Internet. These hosting companies in turn pay for access to the Internet.
Right now the sender and the receiver are both paying for Internet access. The Big Telecoms are proposing a third payment from any website that wants faster, unmolested, preferential delivery of its message.
Why Do Giant Telecoms Want a Two-Tier Internet?
The proposal for a Two-Tier Internet is all about money. Big Telecoms want to change the structure of the Internet because they want a bigger share of the pie. As traditional copper telephones are threatened by Internet telephony, as cable television and through-the-air television broadcasting lose audiences to Internet video, Big Telecoms are looking to expand revenues. It’s all about the money.
This two-tier proposal is not prompted by a scarcity of resources. The Internet has plenty of capacity to carry traffic. The cost of equipment to carry the traffic is falling, too. And there are substantial improvements in speed and technology coming along. Researchers in Japan showed in December 2006 that it is now possible for data to travel at 7.67 gigabits per second on a high-speed network, using the existing communication protocol.
The Big Telecoms say that they will get no business advantage at all from the new technology, and they say they have no incentive to expand the infrastructure of the Internet. They are proposing an additional fee to be paid by any website that wants faster delivery of its content. This will create the second tier, the faster pipeline.
"Besides health care and the defense budget, digital communications will be the biggest generator of wealth in the 21st Century. Digital communications is the new oil.” Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy, Jeff Chester, 2007
What Are the Consequences of a Two Tier Internet?
The Two-Tier Proposal has negative consequences for the economy and the nation. The Big Telecoms will demand payment for letting your data travel unimpeded across the Internet. Large sites, like Google and Home Depot, for example, will cough up the new fees to remain competitive. It’s the small websites and innovative startups on a tight budget that will suffer most. The small entrepreneurs, the citizen journalists and the daily bloggers will also suffer. They will face an insurmountable barrier to business and communication. Those who can afford the fee will pay it. Those who cannot afford the fee will lose traffic and languish in limbo until they close down their website.
You know yourself that you don’t wait for slow pages. Nobody wants to wait for slow pages to trickle down the Internet into their browser. They will move on to find a more responsive site. Visitors to a website won’t wait for delivery via the degraded service.
It’s possible that the spirit of entrepreneurship so characteristic of Internet startups will be thwarted by the extra cost of buying delivery service.
Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web said that protecting Net Neutrality should be one of the top priorities. “The Web took off in all its glory because it was a royalty-free infrastructure.”
A Two-Tier Internet Opens the Door to Fraud
There are significant opportunities for fraud in a two-tier Internet.
- If the Big Telecoms who run the Internet also have the authority to set fees and selectively impede traffic, many opportunities for fraud exist. In addition, collusion and restraint of trade become important anti-trust issues. The possibility of censorship also exists.
- The Big Telecoms who own the infrastructure also have their own Internet content, which is in competition with other sites. They will offer preferential tier status for their own content and for certain clients and partners. They will play favorites.
- When the Two-Tier fee sets the precedent for restricted Internet traffic, how long would it be before we see three tiers, four tiers or forty-seven tiers? We can expect a virtual Pandora’s box of fees, strangling Internet content.
- On a two-tier Internet, the next fee-based promotion from the Big Telecoms might be web delivery targeted by consumer demographics.
- Will the use of Two-Tier fees open the door to corporate activities in restraint of free trade? What if Coke, by hook or by crook, convinces the Telecoms to deny its competitor Pepsi access to the top tier? Or vice versa?
- Will Telecoms deny Top Tier service to websites when they disagree with the message? On a Two-Tier Telecom controlled Internet, will free speech be censored?
- If Big Telecoms can restrict Internet content at its source, how long would it be until they restrict Internet content by destination? The level of service would be determined by the ability of the city to absorb more Telecom fees. There would be speedy service to Beverly Hills and Palm Springs, lackluster service to Pittsburgh and Iowa City, and sporadic service to inner cities and low-income areas. Maybe Telecoms will impose a new fee for East Coast data and another fee for West Coast data, or a fee for long-distance data.
If we allow Telecoms to impose this Two-Tier fee, we will have to fight many more battles to preserve any semblance of the Internet as we know it today.
How does the U.S. Rank in Internet Access?
Americans do not have good access to the Internet. About 40% of U.S. households have broadband access. Among the 30 industrialized countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, OECD, the US. ranks in 15th place in broadband access per capita. And the U.S. is quickly falling behind other nations. It’s a national embarrassment.
On a per capita basis, U.S. broadband access falls below Denmark, Holland, Iceland, Korea, Switzerland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Canada, Belgium, England, Luxemburg, France and Japan.
This means that the majority of Americans, 60%, do not have broadband Internet access. Cost and lack of available service are the factors in this. Internet Service Providers choose not to offer broadband service in rural and poor areas, because of the smaller customer base. The lack of a comprehensive Internet policy is also holding the U.S. back, too.
What Can I Do to Support Net Neutrality?
If you believe that the cost, quality and range of Internet content should not be determined by corporate telecom self-interest, if you believe that Internet neutrality should be protected as an American right, please consider signing the Net Neutrality petition at http://www.savetheinternet.com Over a million people have already done so. It’s not too late to protect your right to the Internet.
My wish is that your life brings you much success. I hope you have a very happy day.
-----Surfer Sam
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