Net Neutrality

Word has come out this week that new FCC chairman Julius Genachowski is pushing to pass a new set of rules to define network neutrality. Hearing this news had me cheering out lout in front of my PC.

I know a lot of people are against net neutrality but I am for it and here is why. If I am paying for use of the Internet, then I should be able to do anything on the Internet I want.

For example, I am an avid lover of the Slingbox technology, using this technology allows me quickly access my satellite systems from anywhere. When news breaks I am instantly able to tune in from anywhere and see what going on.

AT&T for some reason decided they didn’t want people using Sling on their cellular data network, they went as far as banning the Sling player application from being used on their 3G Network. However they permitted other applications such as Orb, MLB.TV (via MLB @BAT) and DirecTV’s Sunday Ticket application, which all let you watch live television broadcasts on your iPhone.

My feeling is I pay for my Internet service and I should be able to use whatever application I want to use the Internet connection I pay to use.

It seems as though companies like AT&T who do not seem to like the idea of net neutrality seem to only want people to pay for their service, but not actually use the service they pay for. What makes watching a live baseball game via the Sling player application on your iPhone any different then watching the same game on your iPhone with the MLB @Bat application?

You might be scratching your head and asking yourself what does net neutrality have to do with satellite, the answer is a lot.

Both DirecTV and Dish Network offer their customers Video On Demand services, because the satellite companies are limited in the amount of bandwidth they have to transmit signal on most of the VOD content offered by the satellite companies is delivered to the consumers set top box via the internet.

As time goes on satellite companies will need to rely on internet technology to offer services to their customers and be competitive with out multichannel providers.

For most people they do not get their broadband via satellite, instead they get it from their phone or cable company. Without net neutrality it would be possible for your cable company to block you from using your satellite companies VOD services by clocking access to the satellite companies servers. And for Dish Network and Echostar it could be worse, since they are now working to build in Slingbox units in their receivers the internet providers could cut off the ability for satellite customers to stream their Sling boxes to their PC’s and mobile phones.

Some will say that if these announced net neutrality rules go into place that internet providers will start imposing bandwidth caps. And while this might accelerate the roll out of bandwidth caps, some companies already have these caps in place.

I don’t have a problem with bandwidth caps as long as the caps are reasonable and there are methods setup by the Internet providers to check your usage in real-time.

As I said before I pay for my Internet service, please let me decide how I use it. As long as what I am doing online is legal then I should be able to do what I want with the bandwidth I pay for.

It’s nice to see an FCC commissioner who seems to want to help the consumers out more then the big businesses.

Have a great weekend!