Verizon's CEO, Lowell McAdam, believes that in the near future the internet will change conceptually. That is, in his and his companies beliefs, those that use a lot of Internet bandwidth should pay more to transport content and the "intelligent" Internet should prioritize the delivery of certain traffic over other traffic.
Two years ago these kind of opinions weren't regarded at all. Verizon, however, won a groundbreaking suit in the past year to get rid of the Federal Communications Commision's protection policies. Now, with the overthrowing of Net Neutrality laws, discussions have opened about whose doing what and whose using what on the Internet.
Lowell McAdam, at a press conference on Tuesday, March 4, answered questions pertaining to internet use and Verizon's networks. McAdam stated that he believed the outcry of groups over the loss of Net Neutrality are misguided and uninformed about how companies like his manage their online networks. He further says that there is nothing wrong with prioritizing Internet traffic and believes we are definitely headed in that direction.
McAdam sketched a story of prioritization being a just cause. "If you have got an intelligent transportation system, or you have got an intelligent healthcare system, you are going to need to prioritize traffic. You want to make sure that if somebody is going to have a heart attack, that gets to the head of the line, ahead of a grade schooler that is coming home to do their homework in the afternoon or watch TV." But this story seems to be a lopsided argument from the start. A grade schooler's use of the internet would not make or break the sophisticated systems Mr. McAdam used in his example. Regardless, I can still somewhat agree on prioritizing that kind of traffic over trivial Internet usage but not if Verizon and other network companies are then in turn demanding compensation: Which they are!
Verizon's CEO cited the very recent Netflix-Comcast deal as something that should be the standard. Netflix opted to pay Comcast extra money so its service could be prioritized in the company's network so as to not be slow or intentionally throttled by the ISP. This may sound good to the user, but eventually this can lead to higher prices for the consumer while the big corporations like Comcast and Verizon get bigger and bigger, richer and richer.
I think in the end we as the consumer, seem to think were getting the end of the stick on a lot of these big legal cases, mergers, and deals the technology world has seen recently. With proper legal framework, all these issues might in fact be blessings down the road. Unfortunately, all we tend to see are these larger than life corporations telling us what is right rather than us telling them. From what I've learned in this course so far I think the internet's laws and regulations need to be greatly looked at. Actions need to be made that is for the good of everyone and not those just in charge.
Related Article: Verizon: Prioritization and Compensation...
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