A Modest Stance against Net Neutrality:

            I realize that for the most part I have used this blog to talk about my Family and other more personal things.  If you stick around I am sure you will get to read about colonoscopies and other insanely intrusive subjects. (See what I did there with “intrusive”)  Having said that all of this talk about net neutrality has had me thinking; what does this mean for me?

            I do not write code, or design web sites.  I have however worked in the Tech industry for nearly 20 years as either a sales position, or as a Product Manager.  For you real nerds I have spent some time as a scrum master as well.  I understand technology and the amazingly positive influence that it has had on the world as we know it.  Think about it; how did things get done before email, video conference calls, screen sharing and Google Docs.  How did you pretend to be busy without Facebook, solitaire or Trivia Crack. 

            So first off, what is Net Neutrality?  There are really three parts to this argument. (I pulled the following from gawker.com):

·         Net neutrality describes the idea that whoever provides you Internet access—for example, Comcast, Time Warner, Verizon, and so on—should treat all of your Internet traffic, or packets of data, the same way.

·         Generally speaking, supporters of net neutrality want the FCC to reclassify broadband ISPs as “common carriers,” a designation reserved for companies who are mandated by the government to provide the same service, without discrimination, to everyone. (Think about gas, or electricity, or landline telephone services.)

·         Opponents argue that if broadband ISPs cannot collect fees from companies who take up an outsized portion of their bandwidth, they lose the incentive to invest in maintaining and upgrading their current infrastructure, which could hurt consumers.

At first glance this all looks pretty benign right?  How will this affect us as and end user when everything seems to be focused purely on our Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) and other telecomm conglomerates?  Then, take some time to think about it.

How much did you pay for your last session on Facebook?  When you Googled “twerking” or “when did pegged pants stop being cool?”   Did you pay for your search results?  If ISP’s can no longer charge web based companies for prioritized service, and then those same companies can no longer sell add spaced based on that service, they will need to find another way to replace those revenues, and guess where they will turn! Hello Transactional Internet charges!!

            Next, do we really want the federal government to regulate the Internet like any other utility?  I believe Government has its place. But this is not it.  In fact the federal government once had a monopoly on communications.  I am referring to the United States Postal Service. (USPS)

            Let’s look at their History shall we.

·         Officially created as the American Postal Service on February 17^th 1691 (Our Postal System Francis C. Huebne)

·         In 1792 the American Postal service was “re-branded” as the United States Post Office Department. (Richard John, "How the Post Office Made America,"New York Times Feb 8, 2013)

·         The Post Office thrived until the 1970’s when private competitors started to have a more significant impact on the Governments monopoly on Mail delivery (""Postal Savings System" by HISTORIAN, UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE, JULY 2008" (PDF). Retrieved 2012-07-18.)

·         Lower Volumes mean much lower revenues.  Not only did the introduction of private companies decrease the revenue generated by the USPS, they have obliterated it.  In the fiscal year 2012, the USPS cost American Tax payers $15.9 Billion.  That’s Billion, with a B. (USPS Annual Report 2012. "USPS 2012 Annual Report". Retrieved 9 January 2013.)

Using my amazing powers of deduction, and the data provided by the government themselves; the post office is a huge drain on our resources, and is being destroyed by private companies.

Now let’s compare that with the Internet and its growth.  Frankly,  it is impossible to measure.  So I will just list the revenue generated by Internet advertising only.  In 2012 alone over $42.8 Billion was generated from Internet adds.( IAB internet advertising revenue report: 2012 full year results". PricewaterhouseCoopers, Internet Advertising Bureau. April 2013. Retrieved 12 June2013)

So the USPS, which I think is and has been a noble enterprise, has not been able to keep up with the private sector, and is now providing a “service” that is costing us all wayyyyyyy to much.

            The Internet, and that fact that it is private, is generating gazillions of Dollars and created bazillions of jobs (these are numbers that even three year old understands) Do we really want to start regulating it?

            Perhaps I have taken a few to many liberties in the interpretation of the data in this analysis, but I am a firm believer in the old adage “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”