Yesterday the New York Times had an editorial about network neutrality. They employed a great analogy: “When someone calls your home, the telephone company puts through the call without regard to who is calling. In the same way, Internet service providers let Web sites operated by eBay, CNN or any other company send information to you on an equal footing.” They conclude, however, that Congress should enact net neutrality legislation to ensure that “equal footing.”
Here’s what I want to know: Given competition, how many consumers would stand for a phone company that didn’t put through everyone that called them unless the caller paid extra? The key here is competition. The NYT seems to understand this because it says that “Most Americans have little or no choice of broadband I.S.P.’s, so they would have few options if those providers shifted away from neutrality.” That’s debatable. But even if it weren’t, wouldn’t seeking more competition be the ultimate solution?
The Technology Liberation Front is the tech policy blog dedicated to keeping politicians' hands off the 'net and everything else related to technology.
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