I see a lot of talk about classifying internet service as a FCC title II common carrier, since I have the benefit of almost ten years in the telecommunications industry, please allow me to paint you a vivid picture of why this is the wrong move: Title II classification offers no solutions to the concerns raised over net neutrality, while opening the end user up to a deluge of new taxes on their service. Take a look at landline telephone service as a prime example of a common carrier, local lines are all provided by a ILEC (Incumbant Local Exchange Carrier), which may lease those lines to a CLEC (Competitive Local Exchange carrier,) whom you will do business with. All a CLEC has ever been able to really offer in the market of competitiveness has been rates for long-distance calling, because all other facets of your service were configured and controlled by the ILEC(ATT/Bellsouth in our case). There wasnt any real innovation in the offerings of telecommunications service until broadband and the development of H323 (Vonage) and SIP (Magic Jack), which provided end to end encoding and transfer across the pipe youve already purchased from your local broadband carrier. Heres another example of a Title II common carrier that does not produce the desired effect: Radio. Before the internet, you could not set up your own radio station without extensive licensing from the FCC. Home users were restricted to using shortwave radios of very low power capabilities, while those that could spend the money to navigate the regulatory red tape had the run of the radio world. Now, with the help of the internet, anyone can have a live radio show, and record it as a podcast for syndication, where other content creators can rerun their show for a wider audience. I dont know what leads people to believe that his desired end state will come about, especially considering that the proposed legislation is actually going in the other direction from what is the stated goal. More regulation will eventually lead to competition? That has literally never happened in this industry, without a game changing new technology which is itself unregulated. Of course, some members of congress will aggressively push this, because of the following reasons: A. It provides more income to the federal government in the form of taxes B. It makes a good show of sticking it to the providers, who will in turn stick it to the customers, directly passing those costs on as line items on the invoice. C. People have deluded themselves into thinking this is what they need, despite the fact that they have never looked at the classification themselves, so it would appear that the politicians are doing the will of the people. These are the same people that told you, If you like your healthcare, you can keep it, Social security will be there for you when you retire, so if you are desperate to believe some more bullshit, come see me first, Ive got a bridge that I have to get off my books, and Ill make you a hell of a deal. The sad truth of the matter, is that there is no quick solution to fix the concerns weve had for going on three years now. If there was, wed not even be discussing having the most inefficient entity in this country take part in it.
Posted on: Tue, 11 Nov 2014 03:56:49 +0000
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