Net Neutrality…
Today I was at the Network Neutrality Workshop, organized by the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs. I was 45 minutes late because of the traffic jams…
We had a Net Neutrality discussion a few years back (I was in the panel) and the conclusions were that there were no real net neutrality issues but that the telcos should be more transparent.
No new developments today. There were some presentations, but no real debate. Because Net Neutrality isn’t really an issue.
I liked the presentation of Dialogic. The Minister of Foreign Trade held a speech…
I like how the government is pushing for transparency to guarantee free choice and open access for internet users. It is also good that people now better understand that the net neutrality topic is complex, and that shaping / accelerating traffic can actually be a Good Thing.
Parcels and packets, free roads and toll
If you want to send a parcel, you can bring it yourself, or through logistics companies like TNT or DHL. With these logistics providers you are free to use their regular service, or by paying a little extra, you get an accelerated service. There’s nothing wrong with that, and it is every telcos right to offer a similar service. It is also a telcos right to decide whether they want to offer free access (free peering) to their network or ask toll (transit) to anyone who is pushing traffic into their network.
Civil rights
Dutch member of Parliament Martijn van Dam said that neutral and open Internet is a civil right. Well yes, I agree… but:
It is a bit awkward to hear this from a politician. Because the Dutch government owns a very important network: our roads. And there is no net neutrality here. At all. The roads are a very interesting parallel to the internet.
Freedom of travel is a civil right too
Freedom of travel and distribution is an extremely important civil right. Just like freedom of access to information and web services are extremely important rights.
But with all the taxes on roads, cars, fuel (insurances) the government makes traveling so expensive, that many people can’t afford their civil rights anymore.
Monopoly
Second: there is no competition in roads. The government has a monopoly on roads. But they want competition for the internet. (Which is good btw). Our road infrastructure is terrible. Horrible. The government has no true incentive to build more and better roads. Why? There is no competition. People will pay their taxes anyway. But our economy loses billions because of traffic jams. If the internet roads have to be unbundled, why not consider to do the same for the roads? :-)
Road neutrality
There is no neutrality on the roads. If you don’t have a drivers’ license, you’re not allowed to drive a car. If you have a heavier car, you pay more road tax. If you drive a truck, you’re not allowed to drive faster than 80KM/h, while cars can drive 120KM/h. If you drive an inefficient car, you pay more tax. Some rules make sense, right?. But it’s not neutral.
Logistics
The government allows anyone to offer logistics services on their roads. Logistics: you know: that is smart distribution of goods. Trucks and distribution centers heavily offload traffic on our roads: postal services, couriers, parcel services, etcetera. Just like acceleration on the web. Google uses acceleration. YouTube uses acceleration. Amazon. Microsoft. Over 50% of all internet traffic is accelerated in any way (caching, geo optimized distribution, CDN, P2P). Without acceleration, the web will be crushed under its own weight. Telcos need acceleration as well. Acceleration is great. But acceleration is not neutral.
Taxes, taxes, taxes
Because the government is so addicted to tax revenues from cars and gas, the government now wants to introduce ‘rekeningrijden’: No more flat-fee road tax, but you pay for the miles you drive. On busy roads, in rush hours you pay more. But we already pay for the miles because of the extreme gas taxes. If your car is less efficient, you automatically pay more. So we will pay double. At least. And I already fear that the system (which is a large scale ICT project with a black box per car) will fail, become way more expensive than calculated and becomes a privacy threat. We all know how many governmental ICT projects fail.
Where’s the net neutrality here? Where’s our choice? Where is our important civil right of freedom of travel on the most expensive, monopolist roads in the world? Isn’t it a bit awkward to demand full net-neutrality from telcos if the government (especially the parties with an anti-car attitude) itself fails in offering a working road infrastructure at reasonable costs?
Keep the web free from government control
Our government has created good rules for the roads. But they also turned the roads into an almost hostile environment for citizens, with all the traffic jams, taxes and speed cameras. We must not allow them to do that on the web. The government is already invading our privacy with extreme taps (Dutch), more than any other country in the world.
Parallel
Actually, I don’t want full net neutrality on our roads. I just don’t want to pay 42%+19% tax for a new car. That’s just crazy. I don’t want to pay 200% taxes on fuel. It is theft. I’m okay with paying taxes for the roads: if the money is invested in infrastructure instead of being wasted on bureaucracy and failing governmental projects. I don’t want the government to follow every move I make: that is not freedom: they invade my civil rights. I do want to pay extra for a fast lane though!
Anyway: I explained this interesting parallel to him and asked whether he could guarantee that the government wouldn’t touch the internet with all kinds of taxes and overregulation. (A ‘brilliant’ European politician recently wanted to introduce a tax on SMS text messages!). No answer… sigh…
The government may be a bigger threat than the telcos are
Telcos have a commercial interest in satisfying their customers. As long as there is competition, choice and transparency, there are no Net Neutrality issues.
I think there is a larger risk and that is the government itself: overregulation, taxes, and especially privacy invasion. Let’s keep the internet neutral :-)
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