Video Games Are A Big Deal... But Maybe Not In The Way You'd Expect

Net Neutrality Will Hurt Financial Firms! No, It Will Help Them!

from the still-missing-the-point dept

Mon, May 8th 2006 6:22pm — Mike Masnick

Last week, there was talk about a memo circulating among financial services firms about how they should support net neutrality regulations, or the cost for all companies doing business online might increase drastically. It appears that the telcos aren't thrilled about that view, and have shot back with Verizon's chief lobbyist threatening financial services firms that if net neutrality laws are put in place, that the telcos may refuse to supply them with secure, high speed data connections. That seems like a threat, doesn't it? Network neutrality isn't about stopping the ability to set up such a network, but about using such a network to discriminate against certain services. Again, though, the debate is missing the real point -- which is that if there were real competition in the market, this wouldn't be an issue. The lack of competition means that the telcos are in a position to have service providers pay twice. While it pays to be skeptical on any net neutrality legislation which could make the situation worse -- the telcos aren't doing themselves many favors with their lobbying efforts, making arguments like these that are clearly misleading and inflammatory.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

3 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

Frank, 8 May 2006 @ 6:36pm

Davidson brings need for neutrality into stark con
Am I the only one that sees a tremendously obvious example in favor of net neutrality here? Financial services worry that prices might go up, so they consider supporting neutrality legislation. Telcos return fire by threatening to punish them in a way that is only possible in the absence of neutrality. Huh!?

Wait, Mr. Davidson, so your plan to get the financial services on your side is to scare them by flexing muscle that you have only if you have your way in Congress? As a financial institution, I think that would pretty much solidify a pro-neutrality position, because Davidson has clearly displayed the lengths to which he's willing to go.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
RogueComGeek, 8 May 2006 @ 10:59pm

its time...
its time to give Verizon the choping block and split that huge company down before they really start causing problems
[ link to this | view in thread ]
SarahS, 9 May 2006 @ 8:20am

hang on
Nobody favors monopolies, except those that profit from them of course. But I have been following this issue and see a lot of contradictory information out there. And I have heard the opposite of what Frank wrote. Wall Street balking at investing in the future of the Internet if Net Neutrality through government regulation becomes reality.
[ link to this | view in thread ]