Thursday, March 29, 2007

 

How net neutrality can be anti-competitive

Nicholas Carr asks if a "neutral" network may actually be anti-competitive. He points out that the issue is more complex than many consider.

In an interesting posting, he suggests:
If net neutrality becomes law, it would prevent big companies from locking in an advantage at the protocological level - giving certain types of data privileged status - but it would allow big companies to lock in an advantage at the infrastructural level.
The protocol may be neutral, but those content providers that can afford to build better infrastructure, or mirror their sites, are able to buy advantages that confound the democratic ideals sought by those idealists who would impose net neutrality legislation. Hal Singer asks questions about Google's motives in his commentary in today's National Post.

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Posted by Mark Goldberg @ 3/29/2007 06:57:00 AM
Comments:
Here’s an interesting example of how the principles of Net Neutrality can be linked back to the Internet’s older brother, the telecom network. A few weeks ago, AT&T began blocking calls to services like FreeConferenceCall.com. AT&T did this without filing a direct lawsuit, without petitioning the FCC and without even contacting Free Conferencing Corp, the parent company. These types of free services are completely legal and AT&T is using self-help and cowboy justice to financially bully competing services out of business. This is the world of Carrier Neutrality. You can learn more at blog.freeconferencecall.com.
Posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 8:21 PM, March 29, 2007
 
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