News and Updates

The FCC is set to issue rules on “net neutrality”, a term that generally means that all data on the internet should have equal and unimpeded standing in terms of delivery.  The flip side of net neutrality would be the establishment of (more expensive) ‘fast lanes’ and (relatively less expensive) ‘slow lanes’.

There are large constituencies lining up on either side of the debate.  Content providers, such as streaming video provider Netflix, and other companies including Google and Amazon are opposed to a non-neutral net.  Organizations like the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) worry about the need for data scanning to determine if the packet has paid priority (privacy) and the potential ability of carriers to block or impede data they find objectionable (speech).  Nearly everyone opposed to eliminating net neutrality points to the chilling impact it could have on innovation and competition as fast-lane dependent start-up costs could go higher and the carriers themselves could stifle anything they see as a competitive threat.

On the other side are the ‘last mile’ carriers; wireline cable companies like Comcast and Time Warner, and the wireless providers like AT&T and Verizon (who also have wireline delivery services like U-verse and FIOS, respectively).  Their motives seem to have two prongs; to be able to extract more revenue from bandwidth-intensive content providers and to avoid re-classification of their internet services as telecommunications services.  Telecommunications services, such as voice calling, are already more highly regulated than internet services.  Delivery of internet services over wireless does become tricky for the carriers, as they do have legitimate spectrum capacity issues.

From this point, the debate begins to get murky. For example, AT&T has announced (http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/07/att-supports-a-fast-lane-ban-as-long-as-it-has-a-giant-loophole/)  it (as a company) is okay with a ban on establishing a fast lane – but a fast lane would be okay if the end user decided which data was assigned to the fast lane and which was assigned to the slow lane.  Add to the mix that the Chairman of the FCC previously was the lead lobbyist for the telecommunications industry, Time Warner and Comcast have a proposed merger, and all sides are sending out their own spin and it quickly becomes difficult to know which statements to trust.

Not surprisingly, there is political spin as well.  Some are calling any sort of net-neutrality rule, even a rule that prohibits the establishment of rules, as ‘socialistic’.  Senate leadership has recently signaled their “strong and public support for net neutrality since 2006.”

Imagine if Net Neutrality doesn’t pass – this would happen all the time.

Solely on the fundamental merits of the technology and equitable business practices, Sound Technology Services, understandably, are strong advocates for a free and unfettered internet.  A tiered internet will raise costs for everyone and impede the ability of companies to start-up and grow.  Large swaths of the economy in which technology companies are engaged rely upon the internet as a stable and consistently performing data backbone.  Please join us in supporting net neutrality.