It is not often that managed service providers face a public policy issues that is prominently discussed beyond the technical channel community. The last time this happened was over a decade ago when BPO was a hotly debated topic, often confused with offshoring; something many MSPs tried hard to distance themselves from. Today, the issue of net neutrality brings some fundamental public policy arguments squarely in front of the MSP community. The debate over net neutrality, however, is not an easy one to understand. So, I thought I’d try and summarize some of the core issues and the potential impact to MSPs.
What is Net Neutrality?
Not sure what net neutrality is? I wrote an article on net neutrality back in 2009 but the issue, at that time, was more an academic one, since the FCC was not truly serious about implementing any of their proposed rules. Here’s my best attempt at defining the “net neutrality” issue. Net neutrality is about the attempted regulation of the Internet (including Internet Service Providers) in an attempt to create a level playing field for ISP services, more specifically, ISP services which do not play favorites and treat all data equally.
Great, who wouldn’t be for creating a level playing field and treating all data equally? Not so fast. Saying you want to keep the Internet free is one thing, but how you go about doing it can create an entirely opposite effect. Net neutrality, as it stands today, involves US federal government oversight of the Internet. Specifically, it would mean classifying ISPs as telecommunication carriers (i.e., phone companies). The outcome of that federal involvement does NOT guarantee a certain outcome. After all, all one has to do is look at the US telephone market and see what happened to those companies after they were classified as a public utility. Many people would argue that telephone service and competition did not get better after they were treated as a utility.
Net Neutrality Doesn’t Equal Freedom
“One man’s freedom is another man’s tyranny.” I’m not sure who said this but the quote is relevant to the discussion of net neutrality. If ISPs want to charge a different price for video data because it will clog up their pipe is a decision only the ISP can make. If enough people complain and have an alternate choice they can vote with their feet and switch providers.
In my opinion, much has been made of the allegation that some ISPs may be throttling bandwidth from certain origination points (say a Netflix) because that type of traffic can be harmful to the network and user experience. The question we have to answer is whether federal involvement is likely going to solve that issue or whether the industry can resolve it. Any semi-serious study of government involvement in private industries (whether in the US or elsewhere around the world) clearly shows that the governmental involvement will increase in scope, not decrease.
So, if you believe in the inherent goodness of governments and bureaucracies you may see net neutrality as a positive move. If you do not believe governments make private industries better or more efficient, then net neutrality may be something you oppose.
MSPAlliance has always taken the position (from day one of our founding) that MSPs need to be free to innovate and deliver their services. When underperforming MSPs became a problem, MSPAlliance advocated self-imposed certification as a free market mechanism for protecting customers. It is hard to imagine the IT industry as being the same if the federal government gets involved in regulating ISPs. The innovation, risk taking, and advancements which have been undeniable over the last few decades would likely slow. Investment into this market would also likely dry up.
Net neutrality is not a foregone conclusion. Even if the FCC acts on net neutrality there would likely be a legal challenge. In the meantime, this issue remains an important one to watch.