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I totally buy the argument that discriminatory "fast lanes" are a potential danger to internet startups. I mean, at least, at a hand-wavy level. But I also bu
by jholman 12y ago
I totally buy the argument that discriminatory "fast lanes" are a potential danger to internet startups. I mean, at least, at a hand-wavy level.
But I also buy the argument that regulation can disincentivize competition. At the same hand-wavy level as above, it's easy to imagine regulations that would make an ISP say "fine, if we can't charge more for an improved product, we'll just focus on cutting our costs... like our customer service costs".
So, is it more important to protect innovation in startups (a few of which are transformative, but the overwhelming majority of which have no social value), or to protect innovation in connectivity (which everyone uses, so benefits everyone)? I dunno.
Of course, all the foregoing assumes that there current exists meaningful competitive pressure in the ISP space. That doesn't appear to be the case very often (both in U.S. markets and elsewhere). I think this is a far bigger issue than net neutrality will be, in practice.
- donall 12y agoI'm not convinced that it's a choice between innovation in connectivity and innovation in startups. I think, in particular, the connectivity innovation is unlikely to happen. The current monopolies offer _terrible_ connectivity (as compared to most other developed countries). Preserving that status quo is not going to do anything to help that. Allowing for "fast lane" connectivity will, in the best case, provide acceptable connection speed for a small number of services. In the worst case, they will offer current speeds and just degrade the slow lane. Because monopoly.