Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Verizon Going to Court over Net Neutrality

Verizon will be going to court with the FCC over Net Neutrality regulations. Well, at least they hope so. They've filed in the US Appeals Court in the Washington D.C. circuit where they know that a ISP-friendly ruling was made just a few months back. Whether a hearing will be granted remains to be seen, but this is the first major court action that an ISP has taken against the FCC's new step in internet regulation.

Verizon asserted in its appeal that the rules are in excess of the F.C.C.’s statutory authority. In a statement, the company said, “We are deeply concerned by the F.C.C.’s assertion of broad authority for sweeping new regulation of broadband networks and the Internet itself. We believe this assertion of authority goes well beyond any authority provided by Congress, and creates uncertainty for the communications industry, innovators, investors and consumers.”

In short: does the FCC have the authority to dictate what an ISP can filter on it's services? Or, stated positively, does the FCC have the authority to mandate ISP's to carry all content (within reason) on it's services?

Well, the question comes to this: what might an ISP want to filter? Verizon, for instance, if left unregulated could conceivably block AT&T's website. Nasty competition, right? But is that what Verizon is going to court over?

I don't believe so (and I doubt Verizon would argue it publicly if it were the case). But what about alternatives--not direct competitors--such as Hulu.com or Skype. These services offer an alternative to Verizon's voice and television services. However, they rely on Verizon's broadband service for delivery.

I was quick to argue once, as I'm sure you may be now, "Yes, but the customer is paying for that broadband, so what's the problem?" The problem, in Verizon's view, is that Hulu.com and Skype consume such a large portion of bandwidth proportionally to other ordinary internet usage that they can affect Verizon's ability to deliver quality service to all subscribers sharing a trunk. Raising the cost for all customers in order to fund the enhancements required doesn't hardly seem fair to all consumers, and especially dangerous for Verizon who could risk losing customers over rate hikes.

Oh wait, there's an easy solution: what if Verizon only charged extra for the users who access Hulu.com or Skype, or the like? And therein lies the problem. As stated, the FCC's current regulations on Net Neutrality would prevent Verizon from legally filtering the content to determine which internet-enabled services one of their subscribers was using.

Is there an easy answer? No. Do I want net neutrality? In theory, I believe so. Do I feel sympathetic to the ISP's market-driven and profit-concerning problems? I do.

What would you have companies like Verizon do?

Labels: Broadband, ISP, Net Neutrality, Verizon