1 Net Neutrality
2 ==============
3 :author: Aaron Ball
4 :email: nullspoon@iohq.net
5
6 My house is wired for two internet service providers: *Comcast* and
7 **CenturyLink**.
8
9 *Comcast* provides what is called cable internet. They have a network created
10 originally with the intent to deliver paid but limited commercial television.
11 That clearly didn't work out as intended though becuase cable television now
12 has more commercials than free ad-supported air-wave television; but I digress.
13
14 *CenturyLink* on the other hand, is a DSL provider. DSL uses the old phone
15 network that they didn't build, they just use it. While the maximum speeds of
16 DSL internet are slower than the maximum speeds of cable internet, they are
17 usually cheaper, likely due to the smaller amount of infrastructure overhead.
18 They also have a reputation for being unreliable, though that hasn't really
19 been my experience.
20
21 Herein lies the problem. My house is wired for *only* two internet service
22 providers. In December of 2013, the FCC released
23 http://transition.fcc.gov/Daily_Releases/Daily_Business/2013/db1224/DOC-324884A1.pdf[a
24 report] in which was detailed the number of landline internet providers
25 available per household. The statistics...
26
27 * 33% have access to 3+ providers
28 * 37% have access to 2 providers
29 * 28% have access to 1 provider
30 * 2% have access to 0 providers
31
32 The survey shows that 67% of households have access to 2 or fewer internet
33 service providers. Further, that number will likely not change much in the
34 future because the only way to get a new provider into the mix is for that
35 provider to use the phone network (DSL), or to have enough funding as a startup
36 to build their own network, which is incredibly costly. In other words, the
37 cost of entry is so high in this market, that it is a barrier to entry. That
38 makes the few landline internet service providers
39 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monopoly[monopolies], doesn't it?
40
41
42 [[utilities]]
43 == Utilities
44
45 The idea has been discussed of declaring internet a utility in the United
46 States. That is an interesting thought, full of complications. What are some
47 utilities we can compare to get a better idea of what that would look like?
48
49 * **Water**: Each house has its own water pipes put in when it's built.
50 Laying a second set of pipes for a different water provider would be far too
51 costly (probably impossible). The service of in-house water access is
52 effectively a monopoly on a city-by-city basis, and thus is eligable for
53 government regulation since its existence as a monopoly cannot be avoided.
54
55 * **Electricity**: Again, when a house is built, its lines are connected
56 to "the grid". That grid is owned usually by a very large company (like Xcel)
57 who has the money to build out those lines, or by the city who also has the
58 money to build out those lines. Either way, electricity can only be acquired
59 from one provider for the given dwelling. Like water, the product of
60 electricity is an unavoidable monopoly worthy of government regulation.
61
62 * **Gas**: I'll just be quick on this one. Gas, pipes, one provider per
63 house = unavoidable monopoly.
64
65 The commonalities of the three afforementioned utilities are
66
67 * Cost to market entry is prohibitively high by the nature of the
68 product
69
70 * Government intervention is required to keep sole providers from
71 abusing their powers as sole providers
72
73 However, if internet is to be a utility, it should [in theory] have similar
74 characteristics to a utility, notably, limitations.
75
76 Most folks want their unlimited data (I'm one of them). However, when you pay
77 for your electricity bill, you may notice that they charge you (in the US) per
78 kilowatt hour. With water, they charge for gallons used. With internet, it
79 would presumably be charged on a per gigabyte basis. Regulation then would not
80 be on how much you get access to, but how much you pay for increments of said
81 access. Many companies have implemented a small, medium, large product set
82 wherein you pay the company multiple hundreds of percents higher than the
83 product is actually worth for a limited product which if you exceed, are
84 charged exorbitent fees almost as if you breached a contract. This isn't how
85 gas, electricity, or water work. An increment could not be "small, medium, or
86 large", but "You used 15.9 gigabytes this month".
87
88
89 [[government-regulationownership-stops-innovation]]
90 == Government Regulation/Ownership Stops Innovation
91
92 The subject of this section makes plain what it is about. If you disagree or
93 dislike this, please read anyways as the entire topic of net neutrality should
94 not be discussed withtout bringing this in (it's not a real discussion anyways
95 if you dismiss the other's viewpoints without first hearing them out).
96
97 The United States capitalist-oriented economy and law have without a doubt
98 gotten the nation where it is today (for better or for worse). Yes, we have
99 some companies (I won't name any, but I'm sure you can think of some) who have
100 abused their wealth to exploit people. On the flip side, the United states also
101 has the most robust, thriving, and enduring economies in the world. Nearly
102 every other nation, if not _every_ other nation bases their currency on ours
103 (I'm an American by the way).
104
105 It's an easy-to-prove fact that most (always avoid absolutes) game-changing
106 innovations have come out of the United States private sector. Some more
107 notable ones are Walmart's best-in-world inventory tracking, Amazon's user
108 preference algorithms, Google's search algorithms [originated here], computers
109 in general (though now they are often manufactured in other countries), Pixar's
110 renderman, the internet (though that was originally comissoned by the
111 government supposedly), the cell networks. The list could go on.
112
113 Now think of the last time you went into a government establishment, be it a
114 court house, the DMV, or somewhere else. Did you notice that they're still
115 running Windows XP with 4x3 monitors and very old desktops? The best innovation
116 we've seen near the DMV as of late is the ability to renew one's driver's
117 license on their website. However, as we've seen with the latest healthcare.gov
118 screwups (let's face it, that's what it was), the government isn't good at
119 doing much that the private sector excells at.
120
121
122 [[a-balance]]
123 == A Balance
124
125 However, if the private sector were really as good at everything as it may seem
126 I just implied, why do we even have a government? I won't deny that a
127 government is needed to intervene. We do need a governing body that is above
128 all others so it can govern. That's why we have anti-monopoly laws that are
129 actually enforcable (remember all the attempted purchases of T-Mobile as of
130 late?) amongst other laws that protect citizens, and in this case, consumers of
131 the internet.
132
133 More thoughts more thoughts more thoughts...
134
135 Category:Politics
136
137
138 // vim: set syntax=asciidoc:
|
