The term Net Neutrality was coined by Columbia University media law professor Tim Wu in 2003.
The questions raised in discussions of open access and network neutrality are basic to both telecommunications and innovation policy. The promotion of network neutrality is no different than the challenge of promoting fair evolutionary competition in any privately owned environment, whether a telephone network, operating system, or even a retail store. Government regulation in such contexts invariably tries to help ensure that the short-term interests of the owner do not prevent the best products or applications becoming available to end-users. The same interest animates the promotion of network neutrality: preserving a Darwinian competition among every conceivable use of the Internet so that the only the best survive.
Network Neutrality, Broadband Discrimination
Why Everyone Should Want Net Neutrality
My entire life and ability to support my children rely on my work’s ability to use the Internet, my ability to use the Internet… and it’s quickly becoming my children’s as well. Dicing up the Internet with fast and slow lanes doesn’t provide a choice, it seems that it will truly just bury the slow lanes. That means that our ability, as business entrepreneurs, could disappear.
I believe that will result in less economic growth and will ultimately hurt our economy and, in turn, tax revenue. That’s a pretty scary scenario and will change the balance of wealth and power that the Internet brings to the small voice – and put it back in the hands of those with money – just as it happened with newspapers, music, radio, and television.
Why No One Should Want Net Neutrality
Proponents of government regulation for net neutrality will tell you that we must have the government involved to ensure a fair Internet.
But do we?
Do you really want an Internet where broadband providers, for example, don’t optimize traffic to ensure video streaming has an advantage over other traffic? Businesses such as Akamai already help businesses to speed up their content delivery on the net:
The Akamai EdgePlatform comprises 20,000 servers deployed in 71 countries that continually monitor the Internet ? traffic, trouble spots and overall conditions. We use that information to intelligently optimize routes and replicate content for faster, more reliable delivery. As Akamai handles 20% of total Internet traffic today, our view of the Internet is the most comprehensive and dynamic collected anywhere.
We recently began using Akamai at our work and it’s been double-digit improvements in our application’s response around the world… in some places up to 80%. This is, of course, technology that is not affordable to small businesses; however, it’s a business in and of itself. So not only do we not need these new ‘fast lanes’, we already have solutions that assist big businesses in faster content delivery. So why are we still talking about this?
This debate, like many political arguments, pitted pro-regulation officials against big businesses. Net neutrality was defeated… and we continue to see demonstrable leaps in performance across the spectrum. It seems the market has already determined the best approach to this… and it’s working.
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