As part of the recent net neutrality debate, internet service providers want to start charging content providers a premium in order to have priority access to subscriber traffic. ISPs claim that they need to begin charging for this priority access in order to ensure their future financial solvency, but some industry experts argue that it may actually lead to their demise.
What the ISPs want to do is split internet traffic off into tiers, which some are comparing to a “fast lane” and a “slow lane”. Websites willing and able to pay the premium would have “fast lane” service which would make them more easily accessible to internet end users.
Benoit Felten, industry veteran and CEO of research and consultancy firm Diffraction Analysis, recently wrote about the impact he believes net neutrality will have on ISPs. His outlook was not a sunny one.
In his blog, Fiberevolution, Felton argues that despite what the ISPs believe, priority access would actually be a “slow suicide” for the corporations involved. He says that they have not thoroughly considered the long-term economic implications of their plan and calls their stance on the issue “a delusion, and a dangerous one at that."
"Net-discrimination is a typical case of a lose/lose scenario," Benoit concludes. "[N]etwork operators have nothing to gain, content and application providers have nothing to gain, and customers have everything to lose. Defending net neutrality is important for a lot of reasons, I just wish that those opposing it knew how little net-discrimination will serve them."
Other proponents for net neutrality argue that the two-speed system would hurt small businesses, non-profits and public sector organizations such as universities. They say that the additional fees would be too much of a burden on these groups who are already suffering budget cutbacks because of the ailing economy.
I personally find this and other attempts to regulate the internet to boost corporate profits disheartening. We need to tread carefully, because once we start going down these roads of a heavily regulated internet it won’t be easy to turn back if things go wrong.
