Double Tall Iced Mocha, Lite on the Chocolate

Network Neutrality

I have been long wanting to get more involved with Network Neutraility discussion, so this weekend at the Community Wireless Summit I went to a great panel discussion with:

Ben Scott

Victor Pickard

Harold Feld

Mark Cooper

In short network nuetraility basically entails keeping packets under common carriage. Network providers should not be able to manipulate 1s and 0s that they deliver to you, or even block certain bits. We have seen some of this for a while with ISPs blocking certain ports so you can’t run a mail or web server. But it gets worse.

The supreme court has ruled that Cable operators do not need to open their network ala telcos so that over your cable line you can choose who delivers you internet access. This combined with the de-regulation of the telephone companies providing access to the wires they run into you house is a bad combination.

Alot of people predict that this is the beginning of a duopoloy where everyone but the largest cable and telco providers will be weeded out.

The kicker is that without network neutraility and without alowing competition for who delivers your internet access, providers will be able to provide a new type of tiered service. Not tiered based on the speed you want, but tiered based on the services you get, just like cable TV. You want internet access? Well you will get basic internet access, lets say port 80 for $30 a month. Oh you want VOIP? Well thats the next tier up. Get what I am saying?

Large operators claim they will not do this, and they will not manipulate or block your bits, however they want to reserve the right to do so. Hmmm

Now of course there are always technical solutions to people blocking bits. You can always get around firewalls, routing acls, its been solved. Thats why we have things like RPC over HTTP. However the technical problem is irrelevant. THe problem is they can work this into their end user contracts so that you will essentailly be braking the law if you work around their limitations.

YOU WILL BE STEALING CABLE IF YOU ATTEMPT TO PASS TRAFFIC TO THE INTERNET THAT IS NOT YOUR TIER OR PRICING PLAN.

This is very real and very possible. Now there will always be ways to get unaltered internet connections, and those of us in the geek circles will probably always be able to get our bits around. But people getting on to the internet for the first time will not be getting on the same internet. They will be getting on the cable tv internet. They wont know any better.

If I had kids I would not want them growing up thinking that network access is a tiered service like cable televsion, or that its a one way street. This does not promote innovation, this does not promote communication between people over the internet.

This really hits home to the point that we need to continue building alternative networks, now more than ever. We need to be able to give people a real network that promotes communication and innovation.

Lack of network neutrallity will turn geeks into cable thiefs. Tunneling VOIP over HTTP to get around your providers firewall will the same as plugging your self into the cable junction box in your apartment building. That is wrong.