Net Neutrality Is Still Under Attack

The FCC passed Net Neutrality and within hours, Verizon announced its intention to challenge the new law, an intention that other major carriers also supported. Essentially, Net Neutrality was intended to ensure that Internet Service providers (ISPs) and wireless carriers are prevented from providing preferential network access to specific commercial entities based on the business relationship those commercial entities have with the carriers and ISPs. This neutrality is supposed to help the non-commercial, home Internet user. Naturally, major carriers and ISPs would want to be able to act without regulation. An example of both scenarios would be as follows:

Scenario One: Preferential Treatment for Contracted Providers

1. Verizon signs a contract with an online video provider that allows subscribers of that provider to view movies.

2. Verizon then provides guaranteed bandwidth to subscribers who view movies with that provider.

3. Subscribers view movies with that subscriber with no problems; no lag time, no choppy viewing.

Scenario Two: Preferential Treatment for Non-Contracted Providers

1. Verizon does not sign a contract with other online movie providers, but subscribers can still view movies.

2. Verizon provides no guaranteed bandwidth to those other online movie providers.

3. Verizon reduces the quality of bandwidth subscribers receive when they watch movies from those non-contract online movie providers, view movies with slow download times, and lag time, among other problems.

Net Neutrality also provides for transparency regarding how carriers handle their traffic to ensure that consumers can make informed choices regarding these two scenarios.

The Mobile/Wireless “Exception”

What is strange about the challenge is that the FCC proposal already includes certain exceptions for mobile broadband providers. The FCC regulation applies to all bandwidth providers; however, mobile access providers, such as Verizon Wireless, will be allowed a certain amount of leeway that lets the company develop their wireless networks in the early stages. It also provides an exception for “special services,” which have yet to be defined.

The attack on Net Neutrality was expected and the reason for it is straightforward. The basis for the attack is simply that Verizon claims the FCC does not have the authority to regulate these matters. The courts ruled against the FCC regarding their previous Net Neutrality regulation with Comcast and Verizon holds that this invalidates the current regulation.

The Challenge

On one side of the debate, the potential investors in mobile services and products claim that if carriers are allowed to self-regulate, the playing field will be tilted against them, while forcing them to accede to the carriers who would essentially be in control of the network. On the other side of the argument, the carriers claim that regulations would limit the companies’ future profit potential, curtailing their willingness to invest in new infrastructure, for example. It is interesting to note that only the wireless carriers are complaining, considering that the same regulations govern cable and DSL providers and are not involved in the challenge, only Verizon.

The Real Issue

“Big Oil” has controlled America's energy infrastructure for a hundred years, and many claim that as a result, America’s development of renewable energy has been stunted. Telecommunications used to be controlled by “Ma Bell,” until it was broken up, resulting in the creation of Verizon, which used to be Bell Atlantic. Should any private company have fundamental control of what is arguably the most important infrastructure in the nation? This is a war for control of that infrastructure, the Internet itself. Carriers and ISP's are the central link between consumers and the Internet resources and services that they seek.

If Net Neutrality were shot down, it would allow mobile carriers a free and unregulated hand over the new mobile broadband infrastructure; the same infrastructure that Obama just announced an 18 billion dollar federal program to expand. This expansion would have the purpose of making mobile networks the primary telecommunications infrastructure over the next ten years. Control of that vital infrastructure should not be allowed to slip from the hands of the federal government and the American people.

A balance is needed, such as the one Google championed in the company’s Net Neutrality support. Verizon is seeking freedom from government regulation without showing the benefit to the American people, only its own benefit. In the years to come, America could face a situation in which the Internet, like oil a century ago, becomes the tool of monopolies rather than an asset of the nation while anti-trust laws are breached-the same anti-trust law that created Verizon in the first place.

By: Bob T. Wilson

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Bob T. Wilson is the technology writer at velocity guide, a site dedicated to keeping its readers informed of the constant advances in mobile computing technology and Internet Service.