SubscribePolitico published an article this week attempting to navigate the waters of the nation’s telecommunications regulatory policies, as seen in the eyes of the Federal Communications Commission. As Stop the Cap! readers already know, Net Neutrality has a tendency to be defined in many different ways. It’s the color-changing Magic Sprinkles of regulatory policy. Everyone has a favorite color.
We define Net Neutrality as giving equal access and treatment to all data on broadband networks without favor or foe. Usage caps indirectly impact on Net Neutrality because they can artificially limit consumption with the potential of exempting “preferred partner” content. Another example: “digital phone” products from the bandwidth provider that are excused from consumption meters violate Net Neutrality principles when the competition doesn’t get the free pass your own product does.
Obama’s appointments to the FCC claim to support Net Neutrality principles and state they will keep those in mind as they regulate telecommunications for at least the next four years.
“In the beginning of the storm, we were in this frenzy because of statements being made by the CEOs about charging websites and application providers for different levels of access to reach Internet users. That got policymakers engaged, and the president made it his No. 1 tech agenda item,” he said. “Now we have a brand-new government. The community is looking to see what is going to happen. If things don’t happen in a timely way, you will see the back end of that storm.”
Tom Tauke
Tom Tauke, executive vice president of public affairs, policy and communications at Verizon tried to put banana colored sprinkles on a watermelon flavored ice cream cone when he attempted to conflate the concept of Net Neutrality with wireless phone companies handing out free phones to victims of stalkers and domestic violence. Huh? Under Net Neutrality, the stalkers should also get phones?
Tauke also demonstrated either a fundamental misunderstanding of the concept, or deliberately tried to muddy the waters of Net Neutrality. Verizon has traditionally despised and has lobbied against Net Neutrality for years.
In Tauke’s eyes, Net Neutrality protections may somehow impact parents’ abilities to monitor and control their children’s access to the Internet, interfere with identify theft control measures, and force an end to protecting your wireless cell phone call from deterioration because too many kids at the mall are texting on the same network.
Bizarroworld definitions like that cheapen the reality that enforced Net Neutrality will go a long way to protect consumers from predatory practices of a different kind — greedy providers looking for another payday by demanding compensation to move your web page, video, or download along at a “reasonable” speed. Those unfortunate enough to not pay may find the very definition of “broadband” redefined as well… “Internet access mildly faster than dial-up most of the time, except on weekends when ‘freeloaders’ have to wait until after 11pm. Material owned, controlled or partnered with us are always exempt, of course.”
Meanwhile, the rest of Verizon thinks American broadband is highly competitive, fast, and that companies are implementing new pricing and service “options” to bring “greater value” (ie. mandated usage caps) to their customers. A preview of the remarks Verizon will make at today’s Free State Foundation panel on broadband was highlighted on Verizon’s Policy Blog:
Link Hoewing, V.P. for Internet and technology policy for Verizon, previews his discussion about the health of the U.S. broadband marketplace. The Capitol Hill panel he references is hosted by the Free State Foundation and will take place 6/5/09.
Other stories of interest:
- Frontier’s 5GB Usage Cap: Company Considering Exempting Preferred Partners, But Now Steps On The Net Neutrality Landmine
- No Broadband Stimulus Money for Usage Cappers & Net Neutrality Foes
- Massachusetts: Verizon-Friendly Bill Not As Consumer-Friendly As Company Suggests
- Blocking or Metering: “A False Choice,” Concludes Advocacy Group
Read this steaming pile of poo from Mr. Hoewing…
http://policyblog.verizon.com/policyblog/blogs/policyblog/linkhoewing9/620/misleadingreportoncompetitioninthebroadband.aspx
my favorite part is:
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Competition is also leading to rapid technological innovation and falling prices. Faced with high fixed costs, broadband operators compete aggressively to win and retain customers and so achieve economies of scale. Competition occurs on both price and non-price dimensions. As a result:
- Broadband Speeds are Increasing: Verizon is rolling out FiOS (up to 50 Mbps in each direction), cable is countering with DOCSIS 3.0 (50+ Mbps downstream); Clearwire (WiMax) is offering up to 4 Mbps; LTE (4G wireless) will offer multiple megabit connections (much higher speeds than today’s DSL offerings) beginning in early 2010.
- Prices are Falling: Cell phone prices have fallen 40 percent in the past decade; the price of a 768 Kbps broadband connection has fallen by 50 percent since 2001.
- New Services and Devices are Proliferating on Broadband Platforms: High-speed fixed and mobile connections are enabling new services like Mozy (online data backup), T-Mobile@Home (VoIP) and V-Cast (mobile TV); new devices like Apple iPhone, Blackberry Storm and Google G-1; new services like Twitter, Facebook, and You-Tube.
- Penetration is Growing Rapidly: U.S. residential broadband penetration nearly doubled – from 32 percent to 56 percent – between Q1’05 and Q2’08 and has gone from 4 million households in 2000 to approximately 65 million households today. Yet, at the Free Press event where the new report was discussed, I constantly heard comments about the market not working to get broadband into homes.
I look at our industry and how far it has come on so many dimensions and I am amazed how much has been accomplished. We are one of the three leading nations when it comes to fiber to the home deployment for example, driven by competition and demand.
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I don’t know what he’s smokin’ or what magic fact machine he has but “cable is countering with DOCSIS 3.0″….really?!?! Not seeing it. “the price of a 768 Kbps broadband connection has fallen by 50 percent since 2001.” again….really?!?! I bet the price of MS-DOS has dropped too since then. I like how he only focused on cell phones and slow “broadband” for that comment.
I just love his amazement at our progress…..it’s like being impressed to see a PC that’s twice a fast as a decade ago…..it NOT impressive at all. And one of the top three leading nations in FTTH?!?!? This is BS refined to it’s utmost form. I’m the one that’s amazed….amazed at the fantasy world this guy is living in.