Life in a World W/O Net Neutrality -- Here's an Example

Here’s a taste of what the Internet will look like w/o Net Neutrality provisions:  the “Internet” provided by mobile phone operators.  Cingular wireless, run by AT&T, won’t allow its mobile phone customers to access PayPal to make a payment on Ebay because it has struck a deal with another online payment service, which pays Cingular for that privileged status.  In this same Denver Post story, Big Telco execs say "There is no need for Congress to create a solution for which there is no problem to address."  And this discrimination on the mobile phone providers’ version of the “Internet” is just a hint of what’s to come on their version of their broadband “Internet.”  Said Carolyn Brandon, vice president of policy for the industry trade group Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association, under a capitalistic market, Cingular has the right to strike a contract with another online-payment company and shouldn't be required to cut a deal with PayPal.  "What's the market failure?" she asked.  Well, one might say the market failure is that in the broadband market, Big Cable and Big Telco control 99% of the broadband access, and many if not most consumers have no other choice for broadband.  That seems like a pretty big market failure, broadband-wise. 

Comments

[CellphoneSavant]

Thanks for the great article. I am new to your blog and I really like what I see. I can't wait to see future posts.

[Imperatore]

Have you heard of Guinness Telli*phone Corp? It seems to me that if they were to implement a local directory program free with your cell phone it would, like the yellow pages, force all businesses to pay for an ad page linked to their listing. It would be the most profitable application on a cell phone. If the yellow pages were to truly move their wealth online and forego paper forever, wouldn't they make sure the laws were in place so that their monopoly moved from that of paper to that of pixels?