Net Neutrality Retreat Threatens Cloud Growth

Grazed from NetworkComputing. Author: Andrew Froehlich.

I’m about as pro-capitalism as one gets. Nevertheless, I believe there are instances when the US government must step in and impose regulation on industries with near monopolies. Our Internet carriers are one example of a near monopoly. That’s why I’m very much in favor of net neutrality to protect customers from being shaken down by a handful of carriers.

However, the FCC is wavering in its commitment to support a full-blown net neutrality policy by considering a proposal to allow ISPs to sell tiered services to businesses like Google and Netflix for preferential treatment of their Internet content on backhaul links. The plan, though sounding capitalistic in nature, would create artificial barriers to entry and could slow cloud growth…

The concept that the FCC and several ISPs are pushing is often referred to as "fast lane" traffic. The idea is that Internet backhaul service providers would be able to charge extra for favored treatment when transmitting data over the Internet. Businesses that didn’t pay the fees for preferential treatment would have to wait a bit longer for their data to be sent…

Read more from the source @ http://www.networkcomputing.com/cloud-infrastructure/net-neutrality-retreat-threatens-cloud-growth/a/d-id/1278756?_mc=RSS_NWC_EDT