caito

There is lots of discussion regarding net neutrality these days. Most of the discussions comes from the proponents of Net Neutrality. They even contacted congress in order to get a legal solutions. How crazy can you be?

A while ago Google, Yahoo!, Amazon, eBay, Microsoft and Skype (among others) started a campaign asking the congress for strict laws requiring Net Neutrality(well, isn’t it ironic that some of the biggest proponents of free market are asking for regulation??).

I know, even Vint Cerf is among those asking for legally requiring Net Neutrality (of course, if I remember correctly, he is working for Google now). But one thing these people don’t understand it that it doesn’t makeany sense at all from the perspective of the network operators!

Net Neutrality stems from the telecommunications time. A time, where the operators of the network were the same as those providing services over the networks. So, AT&T was operating a network as well as providing services over this (and other networks). It made really big sense to agree on Net Neutrality by then instead of setting up agreements with each and every telecommunications company around the world.

But nowadays, it really doesn’t make sense. The network operators are not the same as those providing services over these networks. Google, for example, doesn’t operate a network but provides services and generates huge amount of revenues. If Google were to pay it’s fair share for the network, I believe Google’s profits were a lot less.

Same is true for all service providers. So, looking at this from the network operators’ perspective, why should they offer or agree on Net Neutrality? If I was a network operator shareholder, I’d actually hit my management with a really big baseball bat (or throw a chair at him) if he were to agree on Net Neutrality any further.

And going to congress is a bit wimpish - it reminds me of the European companies (well, I live in Europa but it doesn’t mean I have to like what European companies do from time to time) calling for Government every time there is a new, big competitor entering the market (dare I say “Mittal vs. Arcelor”? sorry, German only).

Congress should clearly stay out of this issue. The same goes for EU Commission. It’s not their job to decide on Net Neutrality. It’s the job of the players on the market - network operators, service providers, and end-user access providers. If Google, Microsoft, eBay, and others are afraid of Net un-Neutrality, they should approach the network operators and tell them, explain them and convince them why Net Neutrality is for their best. If they cannot, then death to Net Neutrality!

(Btw: There was an article on my other blog, imdat.de, and some nice comments regarding this issue, too)

Addendum: On May 3rd, 2006, Washington Post published an excerpt of an interview with Scott McNealy. I don’t really think high of Scott, but he touches some really great points on Net Neutrality there: McNealy Discusses “Network Neutrality”.