According to the WaPo, the chair of the FCC is working on a proposal to enforce net neutrality regulations. Now, much has been said across the internet about this. You’ve got your free marketers, stating that it’s an infringement on basic market principles, and your net geeks stating that it’s protecting the consumer’s rights. I’m not entirely convinced either way, and an argument can be made for both sides easily.
I have of late tended to come down on the side of net neutrality, though. I’m wary of government telling people how to conduct business, but we must also face the fact that certain providers are nigh on monopolies in many of the markets they serve, namely Comcast. This would indeed prohibit them from showing favoritism in what internet content consumers access, and will help avoid a multiple fee level internet akin to cable television. I can certainly see a need for this, too. A good analogy would be a phone company creating situations so that calls between subscribers and non-subscribers of their service (i.e., someone from Verizon calling AT&T or Sprint) would have lower quality calls than in-network calls (i.e., Verizon to Verizon or AT&T to AT&T). This would obviously not go over too terribly well. But the difference in this is that there truly is competition amongst telephone providers in the age of the mobile device, whereas much less competition exists currently in broadband internet markets. At my apartment I have three options: dialup or ISDN, Comcast cable, or satellite. Of the three of those, the only viable option is Comcast.
On the flip side, it just serves to extend the hand of the FCC into another aspect of daily life. Their rules regarding censorship and broadcasting in the United States are already controversial, and it could easily evolve into that in regards to what is transmitted across the internet.
So, as with so many things, the free marketeer conservative in me is at odds with the technology nerd. I am hesitant to throw out a current evil for one that will quite likely become worse in the future, but something has to be done to reign in certain companies that provide services such as internet access.
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