11.18.09
Why the Congressional Black Caucus should rethink it’s position on net neutrality.
The CBC recently wrote a letter the chairman of the FCC concerning net neutrality as if they are not in favor of it. Other organizations such as The Alliance for Digital Equality have joined with these members and blue dog democrats, of all people, to oppose net neutrality. First, I have one question. Have we not learned anything from the health care debate when with dealing with “blue dogs”? I guess not. What also amazes me is how we have just ignored all of the classic conservative code language for corporate welfare and still submit ourselves to this agenda. “Competition and private investment?” “Consequences that government action may have on network investment?” “An objective review of the fact will reveal the critical role that competition and private investment have played?” “Spur adoption and expand the use of broadband networks?” Are you kidding me? This is conservative code class 101, but we seem to want to go down this road.
In the letter from the ADE, it states:
Most arguments for network neutrality fail to account for the very real economic constraints facing the disadvantaged, undeserved, and un-served communities that we and the CBC represent. Our constituents are more at risk of being blocked from participating in the digital future due to rising price pressures and lack of investment in broadband infrastructure precipitated by ill-conceived, empirically unsupported, and hastily formulated regulations than a slowly loading web page.
Both of these letters are sincere in the efforts, but there are two things wrong with them. One, these letters should have been written to the telcos which are partnered with some of these groups and have given to their political campaigns, and two, IT’S TEN YEARS TOO LATE! The FCC is not the problem. The Telcos playing games with the bandwidth is. This is nothing but “digital red-lining” only you can see the lines because they exist as “ones” and “zeros”. Do you honestly think that anything but marginal bandwidth will go to the under-served communities at all? Ask them why an ISP was caught throttling bandwidth after lying about? They blamed bit torrents, but bit torrents are one of the best ways to send large files over the internet without clogging the pipe. Bit torrents allow open source software to be shared on the net.
Open source software allows small companies, startups and nonprofits to have an even playing field when they need software, but don’t have the financial resources to buy the over-the-counter stuff. The issue is not just about connection, but content. No connection in the world is worth anything if you can’t access good content. The media companies are afraid of you, the consumer creating better content than they can provide and sell big ad time for. They are afraid that Joe Public may start a show out of his living room that runs circles around the stuff they produce today. They are afraid that grass roots movements may produce news and content that empowers new movements of thought and action that cause them to rise up and say, “Enough is enough!” They are afraid that these movements may cause the masses to think once again instead of relying of corporatized “eye candy” for information for which they charge massive amount of ad dollars. The music and movie industries are afraid that the masses may produce music and movies that once again speaks to the hear of the human experience which makes us think and act. It’s the Matrix, revisited.
Content is the oil of the internet. This is why Comcast is eager to buy NBC Universal. If the ISP owns the content then they can pretty much do what they want because it becomes an issue of intellectual property and copyright, and they can ration it out as they see fit. Depending on what tier you are on, you may see content that will empower and enlighten you, but I really doubt it. They are not concerned about the free flowing of ideas and information. It’s all about the Benjamins, baby.
The CBC remarks how ten years ago broadband was “only a nascent service reaching only about one percent of households’. What the CBC does not understand is that ten years ago, the telcos promised to have a 45 megabit pipe installed and ready to go. Only thing they got sidetracked with their mergers and layoffs slowly killing off any competition that they have convinced the CBC and others that they really want.
What they should ask the telcos is why after all of the government subsidies and tax breaks from the past ten years, we are still not in the top ten countries in the world for broadband adoption on technology that we created? Why do we pay on average of $45 for a 12Mbit connection while Japan pays $30 for a 102Mbit. Yeah, that’s right 102 megs! I invite the members of the CBC and their supporters to do a little research. Spend some time over here at the OECD and look at the history of broadband adoption in the country. Your “come to Jesus meeting” is with the wrong folks!