Let’s talk Net Neutrality, I hope someone out there listens, and maybe even can offer some feedback, because I really am torn between on this one… You can rest assured I’m not trying to sway you one way or the other, because I don’t know which way to lean myself. There’s a lot of things wrong with this debate, on both sides, and it makes it really difficult. For my part I can only hope to try and make this post easy to follow, and hope it makes the slightest bit of sense in the end… I shouldn’t have to explain why this issue is worth me taking the time to write this, or you the time to read it… Thank you to those that make it all the way to the end, or leave a comment. Let’s start with the Netflix / Comcast & Verizon dispute - since that seems to have been what got the ball rolling into public sight. The beginnings of this ordeal actually started a little longer ago than what is being publicized, back in 2012, when Netflix launched Open Connect; which is a content delivery network or CDN. CDN’s started popping up in the late nineties during the dotcom boom - you know, when Google was born (moment of appreciation please). People figured out pretty quick that they needed some sort of content delivery mechanism between the website and the internet service provider, or congestion would occur. Since then CDN’s have always been a part of the internet, and companies offering large amounts of web content have contracted their services accordingly. Netflix originally distributed it’s content over multiple CDN’s, but saw that it would be more cost-effective if they developed their own, and so they developed Open Connect. They moved their content over slowly, and didn’t do it all at once, so that is where there was some time between the launch and the dispute between the Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) becoming public. Remember that the internet is not a single thing, but instead many different networks. Well this means that in order for the internet to work networks need to talk to each other, but sometimes one network talks more than the other, and sends more data, so discrepancies are developed requiring the owners of those two networks come to an agreement - usually being in the form of monetary compensation, for one network accepting more traffic than the other, and often time requiring infrastructure upgrades to support the increase. Well that’s what we have happening now with Netflix and Comcast and Verizon. The CDN’s that Netflix used to utilize, to deliver it’s video’s, already had agreement’s worked out, and when Netflix moved over to their own content delivery network, it started flooding the networks of the service providers, causing the discrepancy and requiring an interconnection agreement between the two companies. When this occurred Netflix customers experienced severe lag. It is not clear that the lag was caused by either Comcast throttling the network, or Netflix saturating it, but it was resolved shortly after an interconnection agreement was met between the two companies. So that was a lot to explain, but is how I best understand that whole situation to have played out. But that understanding comes with a confusing aspect, because, in reality, none of that is about net neutrality. And this is somewhere I’m hoping to get feed back, because maybe I’m wrong. To me it’s seems like a well played business move by Netflix. Comcast may be a broadband giant, but both companies net worth is right around a billion. You here a lot about the lobbying activities of Comcast, but not very much about Netflix having doubled their spending on lobbyist this year, nor their opening of a new political action committee - FLIXPAC - all in support of net neutrality. Netflix is also the one who went public, and reached out to the FCC. So now were starting to get into the politics: Net neutrality isn’t a partisan issue people, and it’s important we realize that. One thing I’m happy about is the lash back we saw today towards Teddy Cruz and his statement that “Net Neutrality is Obamacare for the internet.” I’m glad conservatives were able to see past the ideology that anything coming from the white house, while Obama is in-office, is bad. Today President Obama urged the FCC to move broadband internet services under title II of the Federal Communications Act. This would essentially turn the internet into a utility, and allow stricter monitoring of ISP’s by the FCC. What troubles me about this is the President’s reasoning for this: “to keep the internet open and free.” Maybe I’m weary from the Snowden files, but I think many would agree that the United States Government, and mainly the NSA, has recently made serious infractions on the privacy of our citizens. If the ability of the government — clearly they have the reserve — to monitor, eavesdrop, and intercept our communication with one another is a threat, then where would that threat be more prevalent than the routers of our ISP’s? Comcast is, quite literally, the worst company in America, and, after the Time Warner merge, is becoming very conclusive of a monopoly. Competitive pricing is already insufficient in this market, because broadband providers are geographically separated with different sales territories. In America we already pay significantly more money, for significantly less bandwidth, compared to other countries around the world. Besides no fear from a competitive market, Comcast also has infrastructure in it’s card-deck. Look at their response to the White House, and President Obama, today: “The internet has not just appeared by accident or gift — it has been built by companies like ours investing and building networks and infrastructure.” And that is a true statement, no one can deny that the private sector has built the infrastructure in this market. One thing you haven’t heard me talk about, assuming your still reading that is, is “fast lanes” on the internet. And that’s for quite a good reason: because it’s completely irrelevant to the debate… Neither side claims they want to see “fast lanes,” but it is ironic because eventually we will probably need them anyway. The fight is merely over who control’s them - who will be the highwaymen of the so called “fast lanes.” I’ve read a lot of forums, and posts regarding net neutrality, and one of the universal things I see frequently is anyone working in the technology industry making it quite clear that they are a techy… I might as well also: I’m a tech. Yay! So, fellow tech’s, anyone heard of Quality of Service (QOS)? It is essential to network operations that traffic from services like voice (VOIP), teleconferencing, and video streaming be transferred over the network at a higher priority; otherwise it won’t work. Certain connections require a constant stream between one end and the other, and usually the only way to achieve this is by setting them at a higher priority using some form or another of QOS. Why would this be any different on the internet? The reason we haven’t had fast lanes in the past, is because there was no need, the infrastructure being enough to support our use of the interweb. But now that were starting to see more bandwidth intensive services, like Netflix, and experience more bandwidth usage due to a huge increase in mobile devices hooking up to the internet, and cloud computing as well, some form of quality of service will, at some point, likely need to implemented. If not than the internet will start to become saturated, packets in video streams will get lost in transit, and no one gets to catch their favorite TV on Netflix.. When that happens the “fast lanes” that everyone is against right now, will become necessary, and actually make the internet faster for everyone. So I’m sure I’ll have more to say on this at some point, but not tonight. Now i’d really, sincerely, and greatly appreciate to hear what you think! Please leave a comment, send me a message, post a link to yet another article I may or may not have already ready, just do something. This is something we need to take serious, and people need to keep talking about. If you’re still reading this then for that alone, thank you.
Posted on: Thu, 13 Nov 2014 04:37:33 +0000
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