It's Now Clear None of the Supposed Benefits of Killing Net Neutrality Are Real
Network investment is down, layoffs abound, and networks are falling apart. This isn't the glorious future Ajit Pai promised.
In the months leading up to the FCC assault on net neutrality, big telecom and FCC boss Ajit Pai told anybody who'd listen that killing net neutrality would boost broadband industry investment, spark job creation, and drive broadband into underserved areas at an unprecedented rate.
As it turns out, none of those promises were actually true.
The next step will be the old switcheroo: circuits now dedicated to the "old" Internet will be allocated elsewhere to meet "unexpected demand," and real-time traffic such as steaming video and VoIP will get less and less usable, with longing and longer gaps and more and more buffering.
The video providers will raise their rates and pay up. VoIP is an open question, since margins are low in that business, but corporate titans will pick up their phones and call their Congressman, as soon as their "cheap" long-distance starts going away.
Email delays will become noticeable, and then significant, and then problematic: but I doubt industry will care, given the growing consensus that email is more a curse than a blessing. If emails are delivered within an hour, there won't be much of a hue and cry.
Once a monopoly, always a monopoly: the politicians who make it possible are already licking their chops at the thought of all the do-nothing jobs they'll be able to slide their idiot relatives into, now that Mother Bell has been raised from the dead.
Bill Horne Moderator