The Fate of Net Neutrality
Opponents of net neutrality (i.e., carriers) have been on the ropes for much of the year. When the Democrats took control of the U.S. Congress in January, legislating net neutrality was one of their first initiatives. There was a brief respite for the carriers in September when the U.S. Department of Justice issued a statement in support of carriers being allowed to charge a premium for priority traffic. Of course, with carriers’ uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, this week it came out that Comcast has been throttling traffic from certain Websites and services (e.g., BitTorrent) - exactly the charge leveled by net neutrality proponents as the reason we need Internet regulation.
[shaking head in disbelief]
I believe that the days of net neutrality are numbered (despite the carriers’ best efforts to undermine their own position). The reasons for tiered service are too compelling from both economic and innovation (and I would even argue from the social good) perspectives to be held down forever. As I am sure the debate is far from over, you’ll be seeing more posts from me about this and why I agree with the carriers in the months to come.
In the meantime, have a good weekend, everyone!
