[ NNSquad ] Re: Net neutrality battles in Europe

[Brett Glass <nnsquad@brettglass.com>]

At 02:02 PM 10/21/2008, Lauren Weinstein wrote:

> Have a look at this document
> http://blog.quintarelli.it/blog/files/network_management_coalition_stmt__031008_final_.pdf

Lauren, thank you for posting this. I think it's a pretty good 
document; it champions the rights of consumers and allows for the 
network management which is necessary to ensure that they enjoy a 
good Internet experience. See my similar document at

http://www.brettglass.com/principles.pdf

The only flaw in the document at the link you posted is its support 
for "P4P". P4P is a Trojan horse which is claimed to make P2P more 
palatable to ISPs. But in fact, it only does so for very large ISPs 
(e.g. Verizon and AT&T), where there is a likelihood that a file 
which a user desires to download is on the same provider's network. 
It is disadvantageous to small ISPs, and is thus likely to be used 
by the big ones as an anticompetitive weapon. It also does nothing 
to mitigate the load on shared "last mile" infrastructure -- be it 
cable or wireless. This is, again, why we see such strong support 
of P4P by the large telcos and none from smaller, independent ISPs 
and wireless carriers.

--Brett Glass