Friday, July 28, 2006
"The Phone Companies Still Don't Get It" -- and why should they?
This BusinessWeek article on the big telcos is excellent (via MyDD). If I'd ever given any credence to their argument against Net Neutrality--that if it were imposed, they'd be prevented from "innovating"--it's gone now.
The thing that I always thought was most ridiculous about their argument was that even if you granted their claim that they needed to be compensated more for delivering higher-bandwith services, it would seem like there would be plenty of ways to do that that would keep Net Neutrality advocates happy. I mean, it would seem trivial to structure a deal that would let the telcos charge more for, say, cable TV over the internet while still giving a bedrock guarantee of high-quality access to lower-bandwidth applications. So why not try to craft a compromise? I can understand why the telco lobbyists took an absolute position, but I can't understand why none of their political allies tried to get them to bend rather than taking the amount of grief that they have. The telcos' first ask may have been hard-line, but I'll guarantee that they would have taken a reasonable deal if it had been offered--and if they'd felt that it was the best they would do.
The thing that I always thought was most ridiculous about their argument was that even if you granted their claim that they needed to be compensated more for delivering higher-bandwith services, it would seem like there would be plenty of ways to do that that would keep Net Neutrality advocates happy. I mean, it would seem trivial to structure a deal that would let the telcos charge more for, say, cable TV over the internet while still giving a bedrock guarantee of high-quality access to lower-bandwidth applications. So why not try to craft a compromise? I can understand why the telco lobbyists took an absolute position, but I can't understand why none of their political allies tried to get them to bend rather than taking the amount of grief that they have. The telcos' first ask may have been hard-line, but I'll guarantee that they would have taken a reasonable deal if it had been offered--and if they'd felt that it was the best they would do.
