Rational Thoughts On Network Neutrality
from the about-time dept
We've been pointing out the ridiculous editorials on network neutrality that get the basic facts wrong and ignore the real issue (the lack of competition), so we might as well point to the well written pieces on the topic as well. Former telco exec Tom Evslin writes out a nice balanced article that highlights the real issues (the lack of competition) while also noting why network neutrality is necessary -- and why trying to legislate network neutrality is difficult to impossible and could backfire as well. He, like us at Techdirt, feels that there's too many lies on both sides of this debate -- and its obscuring the real issues. So what will it take to move the discussion away from the minor issue of network neutrality, and back to the bigger issue of competition?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.
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Competetion
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$$$$
the US is WAY behind in providing cheap service. more competition is better for us consumers.
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Re: $$$$
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Competing?
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Competition is the key
I too am for a totally open high band width connection, but I'm actually totally more for capitalism and ownership rights. The telcos and cable companies own their networks. They are the rich kids with the ball and they can take it home anytime they want. It's a matter of opinion about what the reaction would be. And a matter of spin what their legal obligations are for the permissions given by the government to build those networks.
Isn't this the same as the public trying to decree that banks shouldn't charge access fees to their ATM networks about 10 years ago? End of that story was of course - they own their networks and make their own rules. This is the same strategic throttle point as the Neutrality issue.
The closest alternative drives price and relative strength of a position - not the GYM boys walking around Washington. Why would the rich kids just charge certain companies to not be slowed down? Because most of their consumers could access those sites through dial-up as an alternative. The performance will be just better than that. The long tail of sites doesn't matter.
I'm hoping that public WiFi becomes the public's 1,000 Mighty Mice to the rescue. Maybe it becomes a little more clear through the San Francisco Fog why Google wanted to get into public WiFi a couple years ago.
Now, if I was only so smart to see why eBay bet the farm on Skype. Then maybe I'd understand strategy.
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Other Countries
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pleasant
I second the insightful comments that have already been made as well.
thank you.
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How Are We Going to Get Competition?
Face it, competition is going to be extremely hard if not impossible to bring about.
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The revolution will be netized...
Just my .02 ;-)
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The Elephant in the Room
I see no reasonable prospect of the incumbent operators ever willfully giving up their monopolistic ROW access or the government ever willfully giving up control over it.
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