The Computer Corner
By Charles Miller, Oct 20, 2006

Neutral or not?

This week, I am going to try to answer an Atención reader’s question in this column, although the answer could fill volumes. The reader asks: What is Net Neutrality?

The term “Network Neutrality” was created a year ago by law professor Tim Wu of Columbia University. The term simply refers to a computer network, such as the internet, that is completely impartial and does not favor one user or type of data over any other.

It sounds like a simple concept, but it is not. What is emerging is an extremely complex controversy mixing opposing technical, economic, legal and ideological arguments. As you read and listen to the news in the years to come, keep your eyes on this story, because it is likely to become one of the most important issues of our time.

The battle lines are taking shape between the people who provide internet connectivity and those who use it. Think of this in terms of simple telephone communications, something we can all understand.

A household with one phone and three teenagers is likely to see that phone used nonstop day and night. The grandmother with one phone and who lives alone might use her phone once a day to call the grandkids, provided she could ever get through. Arguably, it costs the phone company more to provide service to the teenagers than it does to their grandmother because the kids use it more, but they both pay the same flat rate for one phone line.

Now, translate that same general theory to the internet. The telecommunications providers who provide the bandwidth sustaining the internet want to be able to exercise some measure of control over the data they transmit. Think of it as the phone company wanting to charge the teenagers more because they use the phone more. The internet-based content providers such as Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, Vonage, iTunes, and so forth, want to preserve the status quo. Think of these providers as the teenagers who see no reason why they should have to pay more for their phone line just because they use the phone more than their grandmother.

I warned you this was an extremely complex topic, and so that analogy is inadequate to encapsulate all the issues.

The internet is a communications medium that carries many different kinds of data. The World Wide Web (www), email, instant messaging, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), streaming video and audio, and countless other applications all share the same internet bandwidth. Each type of data has its own requirements for internet bandwidth usage.

The engineering principles of the network protocols were designed to provide distinct functions in the movement of data on the internet. A completely neutral network would not inspect any of the data it moves and would give all data equal priority. Alternatively, a non-neutral network would determine the priority needed by each type of data and, for example, give VoIP priority over email on the theory that the email could wait a few seconds whereas a phone call could not wait that long.

The telecom companies are opposed to governmental regulation that would mandate neutrality, saying this takes away their ability to manage quality of service. But such neutrality would also give them the ability to charge users based on what they consume.

Internet users favor neutrality, fearing that if the telecoms are allowed to control the traffic on their own systems, they will unfairly discriminate against some users by charging them more.

This is a topic everyone who uses the internet needs to watch.



Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-153-8528 or email FAQ@SMAguru.com