The following is the best description of what Net Neutrality is about:
If I pay to connect to the Net with a certain quality of service, and you pay to connect with that or greater quality of service, then we can communicate at that level.(link)
Dap: Cobb
Others still don’t understand, when people who are “barely” aware of how technology works are allowed to make policy that effects it. This WSJ Opinion piece is an example of such cluelessness.
Meanwhile, Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and other Net neutrality proponents seem to want it both ways. They insist both that this is pro-consumer legislation and that the best thing is for consumers to pay for things that Google and other content providers would rather not. Net neutrality only became a cause of these companies and of the Moveon.org crowd when some phone companies suggested they might want to charge Google or other content providers for priority access to their networks.(OpinionJournal )
Understand what the enemies of Net Neutrality want to do. They want to be able to examine data packets as they come to and from their customers to determine what kind of applications/services they are using. (IE VOIP) This is called deep packet inspection. The ISPs then route those packets through faster, less congested routes if they are using “preferred” services provided by the them or business partners, (ie VoiceWing) or slower more congested routes for everybody else (IE Skype), or even block them altogether. This is called traffic shaping.
Lets be clear. nodes that are closer together can “talk” much faster than nodes that are farther apart. So if you are on VerizonDSL, I would expect that any service provided by them would have a technical advantage that services hosted outside of Verizon do not, but Verizon and other ISPs who appose Net Neutrality want to to be able to do is banish non sanctioned communication to the “surfaces roads” leaving the express lanes clear for only those who have paid a little extra.
You might hear tech people talk about how dumb the Internet is. This is true. ALL the intelligence of the Net is at the “Edges.” That means what make the Internet cool are the people, applications and services you can connected thought the Internet. The net’s jobs is simply move bits from point A to point B. And up until now the ‘net has used what is called “best effort” in determining how those bits get moved around. Now best effort will go out the window in favor what business agreement the ISPs have made with the content providers or application hosts. This is some old Microsoft bull. The ISPs want to leverage their position as the “platform” on which the Internet runs to skim of the profits of those that ACTAULLY INNOVATE. In much the same way that Microsoft leveraged its position as the dominate OS on which PC applications ran. Those that will not pay the ISP tax will suddenly have competition from some Comcast or AT&T sanctioned service to punish them or simple have there service diminished or out right blocked. And it will all be legal.
