| reply to G_Poobah
Re: Can someone explain network neutrality? A minor detail in #3. I don't think the telecos are suggesting slowing down websites. (At least not publicly suggesting that though they may be thinking it.)
What it basically boils down to is that they're putting some "next generation" bandwidth technology in place. Using just the existing bandwidth, Joe Surfer would have a 5Mbps connection. But add in the new technology and he would get a much faster connection. For the sake of argument, let's call it 50Mbps. The telecos are saying that if websites (Google, Yahoo, BBR), don't pay them then they just go along the existing bandwidth and don't get to take advantage of the new bandwidth.
The problem here is that large sites would be able to pay each and every ISP for the fast bandwidth. Meanwhile, small sites would find it hard to pay and would wind up in the "slow lane" of the Internet. As more large sites paid for "fast access", customers would come to expect such speeds and would feel that sites operating on the 5Mbps segment were "slow." This would lead to smaller websites losing visitors and possibly going under (or being bought out by larger websites).
This could also lead to "exclusivity deals" where a company pays a teleco to be its "Official XYZ." (For example, Yahoo might pay extra to become the "Official Search Engine of BellSouth.") Then, if any other competing company tried to pay for "fast lane access", they would be turned down and forced to operate on the slow lane. Google, for example, might be forced to operate at 5Mbps because Yahoo paid the ISP first.
IMO, ISPs should act as "dumb pipes." They should receive traffic from the upstream and send it on down to the user. I might allow them some leeway to take actions to preserve network integrity (e.g. selectively blocking ports if a client is found to be sending out spam e-mails or blocking worms from spreading). But these actions shouldn't take into account what company the user is contacting. (All VoIP connection attempts should operate at the same speed whether it's from Vonage or the teleco's own VoIP service.)
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-Jason Levine
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