[governance] [lack of] Net Neutrality for Mobile Internet in different shapes and forms?

[Roland Perry]

In message <4D837F6C.6070305 at wzb.eu>, at 16:51:08 on Fri, 18 Mar 2011, 
Jeanette Hofmann <jeanette at wzb.eu> writes
>The magic you are referring to consists of the fees paid by the 
>subscribers. The subcribers pay what they are charged.

No, they pay what they want to. Many ISPs have a range of charges from 
between $10 a month to $50 a month for different levels of service.

>I would have loved to pay more if more bandwidth had been available in 
>the area of London where I used to live. Alas, that option did not and 
>still does not exist.

Of course it does. Pay my ISP [Plus Net] £25+ a month for their 
"unlimited" 20MBit service and I believe you'll find it has no caps or 
traffic management. But most consumers seem to buy their £10/month 
service.

>The big telcos which immediately complain when the regulators considers 
>minimum standards of bandwidth or modest rules of transparency also 
>complain about the market because competition is so fierce. What 
>exactly do they want? Return to the comfortable times of monopoly where 
>they controlled both service standards and prices?

They'd like (as has always been the case) a level playing field between 
independent ISPs and those owned by the incumbent telco where it is 
suspected they get a better deal on the wholesale price. The regulator's 
job is to make sure that doesn't happen.

And it's not about a choice between a £10 and £25 a month - if an ISP 
can shave £1 off their retail price the market is sufficiently 
cuththroat that the cheaper provider will get all the business, but 
without it necessarily being as good technically.

>The idea that termination fees would enable ISPs to control content, 
>suppliers and innovation scares me. Don't you find that a problem as 
>well?

ISPs are controlling volume, not content.

I don't understand what you mean by controlling suppliers.

You cannot get blood from a stone. If I have an innovative product which 
requires more bandwidth than consumers have paid for, that's hardly the 
fault of the people supplying the bandwidth.

(I've been there, done that, got the t-shirt. Had an online product in 
1999 which required the degree of penetration of broadband we didn't see 
until perhaps 2005. But I didn't cry "censorship".)
-- 
Roland Perry
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