I’ve been asked at the very last minute to be the third person on a panel at the annual meeting of the Massachusetts Network Communications Council. The other two panelists are Brent Olson, Ass’t VP of Regulatory Policy at AT&T and Link Hoewing, Ass’t VP of Internet and Technology Issues at Verizon. The topic: Net neutrality.

I am seriously outgunned here. My role in the Net neutrality debate is to prepare cooling beverages for the team and to put the dirty uniforms into the clothing hamper afterwards. MassNetComm got my name by doing a whole bunch of blind fishing, until they found someone in town and willing to have his ass handed to him.

You may wonder why MassNetComm waited until the day before to try to scare up a Net neutrality supporter. Me, too.

Anyway, I plan on saying:

1. Non-neutral networks aren’t the Internet and they ought not be allowed to sell themselves to customers as providing Internet access. But this is a weak argument because it doesn’t say that there’s anything wrong with non-neutral networks. (Weak argument but a good consumer protection policy.)

2. Providing more bandwidth quickly is a better solution than discriminating among packets. (Yeah, but until then?)

3. I personally don’t much care about the sorts of balancing carriers do to prevent network congestion. Maybe I should, but I don’t. My two real fears are: (a) By optimizing the net for one type of packet—say, video—the carriers make a decision that deoptimizes it for others. That’s not a judgment I trust the carriers to make for me and you, both because their values may not be ours and because they may be swayed by money (no!). (b) The carriers will be unable to resist optimizing not just for particular types of media but for particular content providers, so Verizon’s house brand of VOIP works better than a third party’s, and Warner movies are a better viewing experience than our YouTubes are.

4. By declaring Net neutrality dead, we have allowed commercial interests to change the architecture of the Internet. That’s a bad way to proceed.

5. By charging companies for higher quality delivery, carriers upset the playing field that has allowed startups to innovate. Bad for startups, bad for the economy, bad for innovation. Good for the Big Boys.

I expect not one of these points to stand up to the big boys on the panel. I do indeed expect to be carrying my ass home in a bag. [Tags: net_neutrality ]

The organizers inform me that the meeting is open to anyone who wants to pay $125 ($95 if you’re a member), which includes breakfast. It’s at the Westin Waltham. Registration opens at 7:30am.

Categories: Uncategorized dw