Tuesday, December 21, 2010
It's here: the day that content-providers dreaded and that ISP's thought would never come.  The FCC is expected to approve a new set of regulations affecting what's known as "Net-Neutrality" -- the idea that all content on the internet is treated equally.  The regulations protect the limited bandwidth of wireless providers by enabling more granular control of their packets, while still protecting the freedom to compete among wireline providers.

Broadband providers servicing customers through terrestrial network will be, for all intents and purposes, required to uphold net neutrality.  Under the new rules, fixed-line providers will not be able to charge content-providers such as Skype,YouTube, or any other high-bandwidth providers, for preferential delivery of their packets.  Nor can they inhibit their packets.  In particular, fixed-line providers cannot de-prioritize traffic from their competitors.

Fixed Wireless Broadband providers on the other hand have a little more lenience.  Under the new rules, wireless broadband providers will be permitted to charge additional fees to content providers for faster delivery to the broadband consumer, or block the service altogether.  The competitive restriction remains, however, disallowing any broadband provider--wireless or otherwise--from de-prioritizing or blocking content from their competitors.

What does this mean for the average Internet consumer?  Costs for broadband services may stabilize or even drop as broadband providers find new revenue through charging the most bandwidth-intensive companies for delivery of their packets.  However, it remains to be seen whether those same costs will pass along to the consumer in other forms via fees levied by services such as Hulu or YouTube for accessing it's content.

Will this change the user experience of the Internet forever?  Will the Gen-X'ers "back in my day" stories be about the old internet told to starry-eyed kids who can hardly believe life really used to work that way? 

Labels: FCC, Fixed Wireless Broadband, Net Neutrality

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