Is a "neutral" net anticompetitive?

The "net neutrality" debate is a complicated one (witness Google's recent twists and turns). Take the very important issue of competition. On the surface, it would seem that those in favor of making net neutrality the law of the land are fighting the good pro-competition fight. By preventing telcos, cable operators, and other pipe owners from giving favorable treatment to certain forms of data - allowing, say, video from TV studios to flow faster than ... Full Story »

Posted by Kaizar Campwala
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Subjects: Business, Sci/Tech
Topics: Internet
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Posted by: Posted by Kaizar Campwala - Mar 22, 2007 - 9:13 AM PDT
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Paul-André Raymond
2.5
by Paul-André Raymond - Oct. 1, 2008

This Story makes the argument that net neutrality is not an easy concept. In particular, disallowing a fast lane may not make the network neutral. Their argument is that infrastructure like cache can provide a significant performance advantage to some. This view is interesting, but the author failed to explain the full concept of net-neutrality and he is addressing only a small part of it as if it was the whole problem. For instance, he seems to think only of the backbone of the internet, when a lot of the problems are in the access.

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Michael Unverferth
2.8
by Michael Unverferth - Oct. 1, 2008

Somewhat flawed argument. Author claims that would need to build massive infrastructure to compete against established market leaders. This was true long before the Internet was around. The barriers to entry into a market already served by dominant players has always been high, and probably always will be. That's a fact of business. The benefit of net neutrality is that if I have a new idea, I can start on a level playing field and grow if my idea has merit and I make better or quicker choices than the competition that will inevitably follow.

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Kaizar Campwala
4.0
by Kaizar Campwala - Oct. 1, 2008
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David Patterson
3.4
by David Patterson - Oct. 1, 2008

Sounds like it pays to be there first. And as always, It Takes money to make money. Google owns cyber space. Built it too for the most part.

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