Comments on: For Sensible Deregulation: Why We Need Net Neutrality (for now)

By: thrica

thrica — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:18:32 +0000

I’ve heard the case made for consumers themselves owning the “last mile” of cable, giving them the opportunity to decide to whom it will connect without laying down miles of redundant and wasted capital. I can’t say I’m totally familiar with the nuances of the argument, but it seems awfully compelling.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 20:25:12 +0000

The argument that applying market forces to the Internet will kill it? Really? By not charging for any of the content you speak of is killing the news industry. Print, TV and will eventually cause the downfall of most of the truthful content that is available on the Internet. There are no free lunches. Everything costs money and by being able to get it for free over the Internet upsets the “no free lunch” paradigm. Commerce still must flow and the “free lunch” part of the Internet stops commerce. No paychecks, no living expenses, no roof over the heads of the companies or employees that supply content and services that get distributed for “free” over the Internet, etc. Step back everyone and think how all of this free content pays the people that do everything from clean the buildings where the programmers work to the CEOs of the companies that are leading this Internet age. Something has to give and it will be the fact that entrepreneurial funding will dry up because there aren’t any financial returns for these companies because all they do is lose money. It’s because the content and services are free.

By: Joseph Sileo

Joseph Sileo — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 14:06:17 +0000

Regional Telecom monopolies (or any utility monopoly) are difficult to get around. Somebody owns the telephone line, power line, and water pipe that go to your home. Even if you do decide to use an off grid supplier you still have to rent the infrastructure that gets it to your house.

Internet Access is the least monopolized of the utilities because you have 4 options. (Cable/DSL/Satelite/Dial-Up)

Now within each category of internet access I would say that Cable and DSL are forcibly monopolized. Only because the junction box for Cable and DSL are owned by a particular company. You would have to rewire entire regions with redundant cable so that each company had its own set of lines. OR have a neutral party (The city/county) own the lines and your internet connection is routed to the company of your choice.

Either way you slice it you must regulate to some extent or surrender to the will of your ISP.