[sllug-members]: Comcast has problems

[Lonnie Olson]

Corey Edwards wrote:
> You have a valid point. To take the devil's advocate, let's say ISP
> Alice decides to offer a VoIP service to her customers. Alice sees that
> other services like Vonage and Skype are using up all the bandwidth. Is
> it fair for Alice to put her VoIP packets ahead of Vonage and Skype? If
> she doesn't, is it fair that she's paying the cost of supporting someone
> else's services? When there's not enough bandwidth, service for
> everybody starts to suck. Shaping is just a way to even out the suckage.

My point is that I don't want congress making laws about these kinds of 
things.  I don't think it should be illegal for Alice to prioritize her 
VoIP packets.

It is up to the customer to choose their ISP carefully.  If they don't 
like Alice's crummy Skype/Vonage service, they can switch.  If they 
don't like their limited bandwidth, they can switch.  Free Market.

> Not everyone has that luxury. Is Internet access becoming such a
> necessary tool that we feel it should be available to everyone, much
> like we decided the telephone or snail mail should be? Consider how much
> fun it is to deal with the phone company or go to the post office. Is
> that really the direction we want the Internet to head?

This argument is only valid for areas that do not have DSL available, do 
not have any Wireless broadband providers, but do have cable internet 
available.  These few areas do not have a choice of ISP.  This is the 
only area where having laws or regulations may be good.  However these 
areas are very small, and are shrinking all the time.  On a side note, 
the ubiquitous availability of Satellite internet services is almost 
compelling enough to completely eradicate this argument already.

All DSL users have a choice of ISP.  They may be forced to use Qwest for 
the local loop, but that is already regulated.  They are *not* forced to 
use Qwest or MSN as their ISP.  They can choose.  This choice is 
critical for the Free Market to work.

Instead of promoting Net Neutrality, how about we promote choice of 
ISPs.  We can also promote the use of our voice at our ISPs.  I am more 
pro consumer, than I am pro regulation.

> I'm still not decided on the net neutrality debate, so I'm most
> interested in your response.

It's good to see someone thinking for themselves about this subject 
instead of listening to the propaganda on either side.

--lonnie