Tuesday, January 11, 2011

Net Neutrality: A Conversation with a Local ISP

I was at a dinner party recently with some friends from our church. Typically, the riveting details of FCC regulation over telecom and Internet usage is not a topic of conversation. But, conspiracy theories are always fun to throw out. To get a reaction, I mentioned, "Did you hear that cable companies can scan your packets and know what you're downloading?" And, boy did I get a reaction.

I had only met Andy a few times. I didn't know his occupation, only that he liked to work with the kids in our youth group. So, when he innocently asked, "Why would they do that?" I answered as if he was unaware of the issue. "Let's say a company provides cable TV and Internet," I told him, "They can see if you're streaming video and deprioritize those packets because it competes with their TV product." A simple enough proposition (not to mention conspiracy theory), I thought.

I had no idea that Andy was a QA engineer for a local cable company.

"We don't do that." He answered. Uh oh. Time to shut up, I thought to myself.

He went on to explain: we charge for Internet. We charge for TV. If you want to stream TV over the Internet, fine. You'll need more bandwidth. You won't be able to get the performance you want without upgrading your Internet. And then he explained it perfectly: "One way or the other, that data has to make it to your house. You can pay for the bandwidth to haul it in, or you can subscribe to our TV signal. Either way is fine with us."

Just one person's opinion, for sure, but I found it interesting to hear that the world of ISP's is not united in their cry on Capitol Hill. As we continued talking about competitors like Skype, Vonage, Hulu.com and the like, he was unilaterally unconcerned.

So, is Net Neutrality really that great of a controversy, or simply a loud minority causing a stir?

Labels: Internet, ISP, Net Neutrality