Net Neutrality Is Dead
Well, what do you know. Someone has actually stepped up to the line and admitted what we already knew. The concept of Net Neutrality is dead. But then, if you believed that it was a runner you’re an idiot in my opinion.
Virgin Media’s CEO - Neil Berkett - has hit out calling Net Neutrality bollocks. Also he admits that the company are already providing tiered services to content providers.
This is no new news, but it is refreshing that it’s getting airtime. Mobile Operators have been working on this model since the introduction of WAP. ISP’s have been gearing themselves to content based models for years now. Bandwidth is a finite resource and costs money. With the ever increasing demand for ‘bandwidth’ from the consumer and contention theft mechanisms (P2P applications) such as Skype, iPlayer, and Joop applying blame to the ISP’s and diverting the cause from themselves - the time has come to stand up and be counted.
ISPs will gear your product and tier your service. And do you know what, they’ll make money out of it. They’re in the business of business after all.
Rule # 1 of the Internet - People are idiots. Perhaps folk will reaslise there’s no such thing as a free lunch now. Probably not though.
Surely the cost of getting your site to have preferential treatment would be enormous as long as there are numerous different ISPs? As in, you would have to pay every one in your target area to reap the benefits (if I understand the concept correctly?).
And would tiered throughput (rather than delivery) not be tantamount to censorship? Not that that’s ever stopped anyone!