[governance] [lack of] Net Neutrality for Mobile Internet in different shapes and forms?
Roland Perry
roland at internetpolicyagency.com
Fri Mar 18 12:24:09 EDT 2011
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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