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Game Theory Computer Model Backs Net Neutrality
Stu writes "'A world without net neutrality is one devoid of intellectual development' said Sir Tim Berners Lee in a presentation to congress last week. Well, now there's a computer model that uses game theory to back that forecast up. Developed at the University of Florida, the model shows that everyone loses if the IPs get their way — even, eventually, the IPs."
Internet Providers, we are dropping Service from ISP since customer service these days is generally abysmal.
You're funny.
Really, you are. You take companies that have natural physical monopolies and then try and act like there are some competitive forces working against them when infact the only thing that keeps them from completely raping the customer are the relevant governmental regulatory agencies.
You must be too young to remember Ma Bell...
A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
"In Japan and Korea, where there is net neutrality and much greater competition among broadband providers than in the United States, there are also higher broadband speeds," he said."
Call me crazy, but I would think it's the "greater competition among broadband providers" that is spurring the higher broadband speed.
You could replace 'net neutrality' with 'rice paddies' in that quote and it would still be accurate.
I'll tell you what good it did. That non-acoutistic-coupler modem that brought networking to end-user consumers in the first place would not have happened or would have been substantially delayed if Ma Bell had not been broken up. The breakup forced (among other things) them to allow other companies' products to be connected to the telephone network. I remember going down to the GTE store to rent a handset just a handful of years after the breakup because nobody else made telephones yet. I remember watching the landscape change, as I'm sure does anyone who remembers the late 70s and early 80s. The breakup of AT&T was a very good decision.
Unfortunately, we're seeing them come back together, like a bad sci-fi movie (was that Terminator 3?) or something. Fortunately, at least we are moving towards a duopoly with the cable companies serving as a little bit of competition. Unfortunately, we were already seeing stagnation in the markets because a duopoly is not sufficient competition to do much good, and I'm sure the stagnation will just get worse with time. Maybe municipal WI-Fi and other disruptive technologies will improve things, but I'm not holding my breath. Short of ubiquitous municipal fiber, it's downhill from here... at least until people get so sick of the new AT&T that they force it to break up again.
Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.
Here's the deal, people. There are only 10 of the so-called Tier 1 ISP. They are AOL, AT&T, Global Crossing, Level 3, Verizon, NTT, Qwest, SAVVIS, Sprint, and XO. You'll notice that many of these guys have absorbed many of other Tier 1 providers. For example Verizon now owns what used to be UUNET. They've also absorbed many of the Tier 2 ISP's. Quoting Wikipedia, "By definition, a Tier 1 network does not purchase IP transit from any other network to reach any other portion of the Internet." which is a definition I can live with.
What that means to you lay people is that whole freakin' globe is being carved up by 10 companies. Everyone else ultimately pays one of these 10 guys for bandwidth. How hard do you think it would be to get 10 CEO's to agree to charge Google for example, at the rate of 1 cent per click?
I'm not the kind of person to start screaming for the government to step in an start regulating things, but I would like to see the internet adjusted so that there are peering points that match the physical borders. I'd like to see the US goverment say that if you start charging content providers the peering points for the USA will be unavailable to you. If you're stateside, we'll charge with Anti Trust and RICO violations. Since American's buy more stuff on line than most anyone else, I think that this would prove an effective deterrent to this sort of stupidity out of the ISP's. They're already fat from the profits that they make off selling the rest of us bandwidth that must be used to send worms, viruses, and spam to each of us every day.
If they want to be more profitable, stop the worms, viruses, and spammers. That will leave plenty of bandwidth for the rest of us to do some thing amazing.
2 cents,
QueenB.
HDGary secures my bank
People who respect excellence don't deride others as elitist. Conceited or self-righteous maybe, but you didn't say that, did you. Whenever I hear someone use the term "elitist" negatively, I hear them shouting: "I am terrified of excellence."
You then further prove my point by engaging in ad-hominem attacks, rather than providing any kind of useful analysis. Who cares if he got beat up a lot as a kid? How does that make his description of the slashdot community any less accurate?