Ed Markey’s “net neutrality” bill is a thinly disguised duopoly ploy

It’s time to take off the gloves and deal with the meddling politicians who want to “help” us with “net neutrality”. What they really want is the power to micro manage the internet, preserve the status quo and ration bandwidth. They long for the sound of pleading taxpayers begging “may I have a little more please, sir”? Having more power over us gives them more influence to peddle to the highest bidder.

The recently introduced net neutrality bill is a new clown suit on the same old pile of stuff from the barnyard we’ve been getting from Congress for decades: Pass a law that looks like it’s doing something, while protecting the duopoly interests. In turn the duopoly makes life just a little nicer for our elected reps with generous contributions, perks, travel and more. Superbowl tickets anyone?

If the buffoons in DC had “managed” the internet from the beginning, we’d still be choosing between Compuserve and AOL over dial up. What we really need is a totally open market with a lot of very disorderly and impossible to manage competition. The only way we will lead the world in broadband again is to create a wild west style access market, much like the internet itself.

Here’s an exceprt from an Andy Kessler post that boldly illustrates the problem comparing broadband to gasoline:

…new layers of regulation just mean long gas lines/slow bandwidth. We have faux competition, cable monopolies versus phone monopolies. Cable modems work by taking away a TV channel or two and using them for data, at $59 per month for 4.5 megabits per second and $69 for 8 meg (while 100 meg in Japan is $30/month).

I have no problem with Comcast cutting back BitTorrent or anything else, as long as I know about it and I have a choice to go elsewhere with my business. But I don’t. I might like Comcast service without BitTorrent because my Web pages will come up faster. Others won’t. But there is no elsewhere. Antiquated franchise rules mean there’s only one cable provider in most towns, and AT&T’s DSL service over creaky phone lines is way too slow.

We need policy to help cut a path for more competition, rather than protecting incumbents — a Bandwidth Competition Act of 2008, not bogus net neutrality. All takers should be allowed access to poles or underground conduits. This is where neutrality should be enforced, instead of being a choke point. -andykessler.com