Net Neutrality Defined

Submitted by acohill on Mon, 03/06/2006 - 09:11

Doc Searls, one of the tech community's best commentators on technology and its impact on us, has done an outstanding job of explaining network neutrality--what it is, why it has made the Internet successful, and why it needs to be preserved.

He also analyzes the broadband carriers and their dream to turn the Internet into a sophisticated form of cable TV. This is an article that deserves close attention. Here is just one of many key points:

"In fact, the asymmetrical build-outs of service to homes has done enormous harm to market growth by preventing countless small and home Net-based businesses from starting and growing.

Specifically, by provisioning big bandwidth downstream and narrow bandwidth upstream, while blocking ports 25 and 80--in crass violation of the Net's UNIX-derived network model, in addition to the end-to-end principle--the carriers prevent customers from running their own mail and Web servers and whatever server-based businesses might be possible. Again, all the carriers can imagine is Cable TV. That's been their fantasy from the beginning."

The end of network neutrality means the choking off of new engines of economic growth, especially in rural communities and underserved urban neighborhoods. Small businesses and entrepreneurs have been creating jobs at a furious rate over the past decade, fueled in large part by the Internet. If we lose the Internet as we know, to be replaced by glorified TV, communities and neighborhoods lose their future.

Read this article.