It's Still The Information Super Toll Road: An Intended Consequence of Net Neutrality - Shelly Palmer

On May 15 2014 the FCC voted to move forward with considerations on a proposal for new rules known as quotOpen Internetquot rules the new name for Net Neutrality If you are a provider of Internet services nothing has changed You still get to do business exactly the way you have been If you are a concerned citizen wondering how you can compete and prosper in a world where ISPs charge for the quotfast lanequot you still have time to make your caseBack in 2010 I wrote this article to help get the discussion going Right now the FCC39s current ruling should highly motivate all interested parties to get into the discussion Here39s a way to think about itThere39s still an ongoing battle between Level 3 and Comcast It39s a good example of the kind of issues that are intended consequences of the Net Neutrality debate Netflix uses Level 3 to deliver its videos to customers It pays Level 3 for bandwidth If you are a Comcast customer you pay Comcast for bandwidth In theory Level 3 is getting paid and Comcast is getting paid and everything should be fine However in order for your Netflix movie to arrive at your Comcastconnected home the bits have to pass from Level 3 to Comcast If you39re Comcast this is an excellent place to put a tollboothUp to now Level 3 and Comcast have had an arrangement that allowed each company to send bits bidirectionally The arrangement was made back when both companies sent about the same amount of bits to each other But now that Level 3 is sending more bits through Comcast than Comcast is sending through Level 3 Comcast wants to be paid This is the nature of the current battle in its simplest terms But like I said it39s a smoke screenThe clichamp233 description for the public Internet courtesy of Al Gore is the quotInformation Superhighwayquot It39s a reasonable metaphor for the way information travels around the Internet Even engineers like to call bunches of bits getting from place to place quottrafficquotIn the physical travel world you can get from place to place several different ways You can walk ride a bike take a car take a bus take a train or fly Of course while some places are only accessible by air we all know that remote locations very often require us to use multiple modes of transportation Now imagine that people are bitsThe physical transportation world also has a fairly well defined class structure It is segmented with modes of travel that efficiently meet the needs of each constituency and it is economically segregated You are about as likely to find an Upper Eastside Socialite in the lounge at the Port Authority bus terminal waiting for a bus to South Carolina as you are to find a single mother of six on welfare in the Admiral39s Club at JFK Terminal 8 waiting for her first class seat to the Vineyard It happens but not often Most of the time modes of travel air train bus car bike feet are a function of economic class means and emergent need So to keep the metaphor going imagine that Comcast is Cathay Pacific Airlines and Time Warner Cable39s basic broadband service is Amtrak and Verizon39s lowend DSL service is GreyhoundHow would we expect the economic landscape to look in a world where instead of one Information Superhighway we39d have web of public and privately owned Information Super Toll Roads Would we expect people who could only afford Greyhound bus service to do business with companies in Europe or Asia Would we expect people who could only afford Amtrak train service to compete with people who could deliver merchandise overnight via air Would organizations that own toll roads make it just a little too expensive to compete with them Would organizations that own airlines charge competitors for extra bags and bigger seats Keep asking travel questions they all applyIt is hard to be optimistic about a future world where there is a lowpowered free and open Internet and a web of private toll roads owned by nongovernmental organizations that inherently compete with their customers The specter of such a world bodes ill for innovation entrepreneurship and in some ways even the doing of digital life That said regulating pricing for Internet Service Providers will seriously dissuade private investment in the infrastructure we need to move America into the Information AgeThis line of thinking begs for the question Will a plurality of Internet underclasses evolve Want a current day analog Look at the prepaid mobile phone business It39s huge and so unstructured that even the service providers don39t know who is using their products or how they are using themBack in the day phone companies charged us for making calls but receiving a call was free This was a function of technology not desire As soon as cell phones hit the market we started paying for time used bandwidth both coming and going What39s happening with Net Neutrality is a fight over exactly the same issue Now we pay for the bandwidth we use on one end If this goes the wrong way we you and I will pay for bandwidth both coming and going On a personal level this is not onerous However at the enterprise level if we were to govern America for the best possible GDP as opposed to governing for corporate profits it has the potential to be a huge problemI am NOT advocating any government involvement with the Internet I think government has proven that it has no business being in any business However this is not a debate you can leave to others Get your elected officials on the phone Take a few minutes to learn about the issue This is the moment that we have to step up and become architects of our digital future Become part of the solution America needs youShelly Palmer is Fox 5 New York39s Onair Tech Expert WNYWTV and the host of Fox Television39s monthly show Shelly Palmer Digital Living He also hosts United Stations Radio Network39s Shelly Palmer Digital Living Daily a daily syndicated radio report that features insightful commentary and a unique insiders take on the biggest stories in technology media and entertainment He is Managing Director of Advanced Media Ventures Group LLC an industryleading advisory and business development firm and a member of the Executive Committee of the National Academy of Television Arts ampamp Sciences the organization that bestows the coveted Emmyamp174 Awards Palmer is the author of Television Disrupted The Transition from Network to Networked TV 2nd Edition York House Press 2008 the seminal book about the technological economic and sociological forces that are changing everything Overcoming The Digital Divide How to use Social Media and Digital Tools to Reinvent Yourself and Your Career York House Press 2011 and Digital Wisdom Thought Leadership for a Connected World York House Press 2013 For more information visit shellypalmercomRead all Shelly39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Shelly Palmer ReportCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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