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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."
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FTFS:
What is an IP? It can't be an intellectual property, since they don't have will, so they can't get their way. I'm pretty sure it can't be internet protocol.
Did you perhaps mean ISP?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
I just feel sorry for the IPs.
RIP 127.0.0.1
We hardly knew you.
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Their couldn't be any other explanation!
The Rise and Fall of Online Community
It makes sense that an ISP with a given set of customers would want to extort content providers by slowing down the connections to those who don't engage in payola. But wouldn't that put the ISP at a big disadvantage compared to another ISP that continues to upgrade the speed of connections and not charge the content providers?
Oh, like these "facts" are going to stop Ted Stevens from being a tool. He doesn't need "figures" and "information" to poison his waterhole.
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.
Thats what governments do, they govern things.
And it is needed. If it isn't done, eventually one ISP will rise to the top, and be the ones to decide what you see and what you don't. When that one ISP finally takes over and claims its monopoly, we need to have some checks and balances in place.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
"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.
Look, let me explain something about group dynamics in general and geek psychology in particular. Every group develops little markers that let members know if someone is a part of the group. Particular ways of speaking, writing, or acting, little jokes, that sort of thing.
Many geeks grew up as outsiders. We were smarter, but lacked social skills. Dumber but more popular people felt threatened by our brains and put us down, picked on us, and so forth. One characteristic that groups of those dumber people adopted as their group marker was a disdain for all things intellectual. One thing many geeks have adopted is just the opposite, a respect for all things intellectual, to distinguish ourselves from them.
Do you see where this is going?
You come on a geek message board spouting anti-intellectualism, "Oh, you dorks, proper spelling and grammar don't matter. Get over yourselves." You have just identified yourself as "one of them," an outsider, probably anti-intellectual, most likely of the same sort that picked on many of us as kids.
Proper spelling and grammar are one of our shibboleths, along with Natalie Portman, hot grits, and Beowulf clusters. It isn't primarily about communication, although that is a factor. It is about identity. We are geeks. Geeks are smart. Smart people spell words correctly and use proper grammar. That is who we are.
When people here correct your spelling or grammar, they are really just trying to carry on our culture, and help you fit in. You don't have to, but if you don't, you will be seen as an outsider by many here. That's just how it is with people. You know the old saying, "When in Rome..."
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Um, no. Everyone may lose, but those who most abuse the market will be the ones who lose least, in precisely the sense of the classical tragedy of the commons. Indeed, that's precisely why everyone is likely to lose, because the absence of neutrality rules promotes ever greater abuse. Which is precisely why a regulatory and enforcement regime is needed.
"The network" is not natural and has no natural state. The network has previously been largely neutral because of government policies enforcing certain aspects of neutrality on important parts of the network, though those policies are currently only in the form of shifting FCC practices, not law.
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
No monopoly is necessary
It's called an oligopoly, and it's almost as bad.
Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
I don't know about others, but I hack code and I don't give two shits about spelling and grammar.
So, your code rarely works correctly?
FalconShould there be a Law?
You young'uns don't remember exactly how it happened, so let me clarify the history, and how things have gone astray recently.
It 1968, the FCC's Carterfone decision allowed non-Bell equipment to be attached to their phone lines. This led to the adoption of things like answering machines, cordless phones, and modems, all of which were banned by Ma Bell before then (so they could rent 300 bps modems for $25/month to those who really needed them).
In 1969, the FCC's MCI Decision allowed leased lines to be provided by competitive carriers. This made long-haul backbone lines cheaper. Dial-up long distance was supposed to remain a monopoly. But around 1975, MCI figured out a trick, started its Execunet service, and while the FCC opposed it once it figured out what was going on, by 1978 a court held that it was okay. That led to the rules for LD carriers that are still in effect, wherein they pay local phone companies "access" minute of use rates at both ends of a call.
In 1980, the FCC's Computer II Decision held that terminal equipment (what Carterfone permitted to become competitive) should no longer be tariffed at all, so it would become fully competitive and deregulated in 1983. It also held that "enhanced" services could only be provided by phone companies via a "fully separate subsidiary" that purchased "basic" services on the same terms as an unaffiliated party. This is the specific rule that was revoked in 2005, effective 2006, causing the Network Neutrality problem. Under Computer II, any ISP could use the Bells' DSL for a tariffed price. That is no longer the case; ISPs have no right to use Bell wire at all.
In 1982, AT&T and the Department of Justice agreed to the Modified Final Judgement, the Divestiture, which broke AT&T into pieces effective 1/1/84. At the time, long distance was seen as competitive but local phone service was not. So the "Baby Bells" were allowed to remain monopolies, providing "access" to LD companies, and local dialtone, at regulated rates.
In 1996, the Telecom Act opened up local competition in all states. It recognized that the Bells had an advantage of incumbency, a network already in place, so it required them to provide components on an "unbundled" basis, priced based on loaded long run incremental cost, to competitors. The FCC enforced this from 1996 to 2001.
In 2001, a Republican FCC majority began to roll back pro-competition rules, finding or imagining loopholes in the Telecom Act. So now it is very hard or impossible for competitive telcos (who serve ISPs, often affiliates) to get access to Bell wire at all. Again, the idea is to allow the Bells to have total control of the content of their wire -- the opposite of neutrality. FCC chairman Kevin Martin is an unabashed Bell (and rural incumbent telco -- they're even worse) lover and does practically anything to please them. But the new Congress is less impressed with him than the old one.