The issue of network neutrality is the biggest elephant in the history of the Internet.
While it’s relatively quiet now – it’s going to get very noisy soon.
This post, for example, highlights a recent scuffle between the FCC and Comcast dueto inconsistent VoIPquality on the Comcast network. Specifically, the FCC wants to know why the company says some VoIP phone calls might occasionally sound “choppy” — but not those placed through Comcast’s own digital phone service.
In my opinion, VoIP is just the appetizer. Online video is the hedonistic main course that is feeding the elephant’s appetite and forcing many people, including President Obama, to pay closer attention to issues surrounding network nuetrality.
Net Neutrality
Video is driving per user network costs through the roof, and in many cases there is no value added to the carrier. Consider that Youtube is now the world’s second largest search engine behind Google. Millions of videos (many of them senseless) are chewing up bandwidth and driving up costs. Also, think about the impact of NBC’s Hulu on US carriers. See if you can guess how much extra money Verizon makes for streaming an HD episode of The Office?
No matter which side you might be on — the fact is that online video is exploding and it’s rapidly driving network costs higher for carriers. As a result, carriers are aggresively rethinking their position with regard to network nuetrality. They can either lobby the FCC like hell to get compensated for delivering value added (priority) content — or they can get creative to figure out ways to deliver new, higher margin, services that work with the tide rather than against it.
Personally, I’d love to see them innovate — rather than regulate. Time will tell.
