Network Neutrality and the Court of Public Opinion

            Ask most people a basic question about Internet neutrality and the clear majority support it.  Who likes biased networks, particularly if the bias appears to subordinate the views and interests of you and like-minded people?

            On the other hand, ask people about what they think Netflix and their broadband carriers ought to do should network congestion bogging down bandwidth intensive video streams.  The likely answer: fix it!  Okay, but what kind of fix constitutes “reasonable network management” vs. something akin to prioritization of traffic?  The former universally qualifies for exemption from mandatory neutrality, but the latter triggers disputes.  ISPs can tier service by bit rate delivery speeds and monthly allotment of data.  Should they also have additional market segmentation opportunities to exempt certain traffic from debiting a data plan, so-called zero rating, or to slow down (throttle) entire categories of content, e.g., video streaming?

            The Court of Public Opinion seems clearly in favor of service arrangements described by words like free and unlimited. Of course, in the wireless world, nothing is free and unlimited does not have the common meaning.  Free comes with upselling to a more expensive service tier, e.g., “free” and “unlimited” streaming of a Direct Broadcast Satellite operator’s content. 

            “Unlimited data” has several fine print exceptions.  Throttling typically reduces bit transmission rate to 2G speed incapable of delivering video streams when a subscriber exceeds a ceiling of 20 or more Gigabytes of data delivery.  Also, wireless subscribers have to make do with video streaming that reduces the video line resolution of all streaming content, presumably a trade-off for a much higher monthly data allowance.

            Does the Court of Public Opinion favor zero rating and even tolerance for less video line resolution?  We may soon find out how California broadband consumers react if such options become illegal.  The legislature there enacted legislation that restores the consumer safeguards created in the FCC’s 2015 Open Internet Order and in several instances reaches further into the Internet marketplace.

            SB-822 current rests on the desk of California Governor Jerry Brown.  Does the Governor sign the legislation that deems illegal zero rating, most types of throttling and possibly even the paid peering arrangement that Netflix and Comcast negotiated to resolve a traffic delivery dispute? If he does we will see just how ticked off California broadband consumers get when state law mandates strict neutrality that forecloses “better than best efforts routing” and other market enhancements available at a premium price.

            For my part, I part company with my network neutrality friends, because I believe elected officials should rarely stand in the way of allowing a maturing Internet ecosystem to delivery different tiers of service at varying price points.