[governance] What is Network Neutrality

[Roland Perry]

In message <64015215-30A1-46EE-B7E4-D191AFD88029 at ras.eu.org>, at 
11:23:36 on Fri, 9 Jan 2009, Meryem Marzouki <marzouki at ras.eu.org> 
writes
>> I have a background in business and I am a businessman, with a total 
>>commitment for Civil Society values. I will put on the businessman's 
>>hat and ask you how I would survive as an ISP or Infrastructure 
>>provider if you insist on me charging $10 each for Virginia and 
>>Robert? I don't have $80 to subsidize Robert. How will I recoup my 
>>investments? How will I survive? More important, how will I prosper?
>
>Do I understand it right that you're advocating against flat access 
>rates for ISP subscrivers, and in favor of a usage-based pricing 
>system, i.e. back to the old dial-up times system?

I can choose to spend (equivalent) $15 a month for 3G wireless broadband 
capped at 1GByte, or $30 for 10Gbyte. Do you think different caps like 
that are in some sense "wrong"?

Meanwhile, don't knock dial-up; I just spent a week on holiday (in the 
UK!) where the only Internet access available was at 9.6K bits per 
second on my mobile phone over dial-up. That cost me around $50 for 
approx 20 Megabytes. Only 1,000x the price of the 3G broadband I could 
have been using ten miles to the west.

>Note that, in any case, this is different from the net neutrality 
>issue, whatever way the concept is framed.

It's also more about "universal access" (where "universal" here means 
everyone being given access at the same price, regardless of the cost of 
supplying it).
-- 
Roland Perry
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