FTC Chief Negative On Net Neutrality
Digg posting: “The head of the Federal Trade Commission on Monday expressed sharp skepticism toward proposed laws that would levy extensive Net neutrality regulations on broadband providers. Majoras said extensive Net neutrality legislation currently pending in the U.S. Senate is unnecessary because there has been no demonstrated harm to consumers.”
The Net Neutrality debate can be confusing. I would think most people would be for Net Neutrality as it implies free access to content on the internet. The challenge is that nothing is ever really free. In this case, the cost is just passed on to the telecommunications companies instead of the content providers. The problem is that somewhere telecommunications companies have to generate revenue and profit so that they will invest in their infrastructure so that we can have faster internet. This can end up in outdated infrastructure with slow internet speeds and more costly internet bills for individual consumers.
An analogy to Net Neutrality is the Nation’s highway system. The majority of roads seem free (net neutrality), but in reality the taxpayers pay road taxes. Large trucks pay more (content providers). Toll roads are just additional premiums consumers pay for particular roads.
Again, nothing is free to include the internet. We are all going to pay for the internet one way or the other. The question is what is better for the public. Should we pay particular content providers that we use or should we pay the telecommunications provider? And in turn (the real debate), should content providers like Google and Yahoo! pay the telecommunications providers for better internet access to their customers? Some telecommunications providers say yes that heavy users on the internet (content providers) should pay more.
I’m not sure what the right answer is, but I like to keep things in the open, Net Neutrality is a politically charged phrase that can give out a wrong impression. The internet is not free. I like the approach that the FTC is taking where they ask the question, “does the content providers or the telecommunications providers’ actions hurt the consumer.” If we do not have relatively easy access to the internet and content providers, that is not good. If consumers have slow access to the internet compared to other countries for the same subscription price, this is not good either.