Net Neutrality, What does it mean?

We are an Internet company that relies on continuous reliable Internet service for our customers.  I for one am generally against any kind of government regulation or intervention. As a great man once said the most dangerous words are

"Hello I am from the government and I am here to help"

Something has to be done though.  Here is a great article that explains a side of Net Neutrality

http://www.thestreet.com/story/12326531/3/will-net-neutrality-cost-more-than-cable.html

Our country is a large one, however that does not take away our requirement to compete with other countries such as Germany, Norway, Sweden, Japan and Brazil. With our health care cost ratio way higher than other countries we need every advantage we can achieve.

So what is the answer?  The problem lies in the last mile, the connection to a person home or business.  No matter what company is providing the service people installing cable are very expensive.  With archaic contracts and monopolies this is certainly not going to change.

One of the goals the cable companies want to do is charge high users more.  My problem with this approach is that they are a monopoly and in many cases no competition is available to control pricing.  Therefore it is up to local governments to regulate the pricing levels and that has not proven to be successful.

So how do we get competition? We won't. Google is trying but they are not rushing around the country with trucks and bulldozers laying fiber to business and homes. The answer lies in new technology.

The current cell phone technology simply does not allow the bandwidth required from a heavy user or business location at a reasonable price. Some type of wireless technology that is compatible with wireless access points and is capable of handling the download and upload speeds required by today's users and businesses. This technology will happen, we have seen claims of the technology appear but nothing marketable yet.  At that point in time the current cable companies may have a few issues.

Now back to Net Neutrality. So often laws such as the copyright and software patent laws just get worse as you update them for technology. This is because they are often written to protect a group and not people, but that is another conversation all together. Let's not pass rules and regulations based on a group of companies and their desire to support an archaic outdated network. Perhaps it is a time to take a step back and see what develops before we rush into anything.

Jeffrey