NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Re: Comcast/NBC Merger would pose new challenges for FCC
Seeing Andrew McLaughlin's comments is encouraging. He's right in
recognizing that we must address the dysfunctional regulatory system that
has kept us in scarcity.
This move puts makes Comcast's cable plant a liability. In order to get the
value out of the merger it needs wide distribution and a level playing
field. It benefits of the even-handed treatment we associate with Network
Neutrality as it increasingly move distribution to IP.
At a purely technical level today's video over "cable" suffers badly
whenever there is a problem with the video signaling. IP-based protocols are
more resilient out of necessity and degrade gracefully. They can do even
better when they are not tied to a single path - the very properties that we
find in protocols such as Bit Torrent. While Bit-Torrent may have had its
origins in sharing video the underlying idea of flexible distribution is far
better architecture than 1970's vintage FTP.
Comcast is not alone in efforts to move away from "cable" distribution.
Verizon is trying to get into the "Geek Squad" type business and into
applications support for business. Time-Warner already has a strong content
business apart from the "cable" business. In the UK British Telecom has
moved their networking business into "Openreach".
With NBCU Comcast would gain a competitive advantage from antitrust efforts
that separate the "content" business from the networking infrastructure
business. It is reminiscent of 1984 Divestiture when ATT saw an opportunity
to get into the computer business by loosening its control over retail
telephony.
The question is whether the FCC can rise to the occasion. Distribution over
IP is already relegating the Set Top Box (STB) to dustbin of history. The
Post story misses the point when it says that the STB will bring IP video to
the TV. Today's STB is an accidental property of cable distribution. Some of
its successors may look similar on the surface but they would no longer be
protected from completion by an obsolescent regulatory regimen.
[ Andrew is definitely one of the good guys. Having someone in that
position who actually understands what's really going on is, I
agree, encouraging. However, whether (to paraphrase Maxwell
Smart) "the forces of niceness and goodness will ultimately
triumph over the forces of evil and rottenness" in this context is
by no means clear.
-- Lauren Weinstein
NNSquad Moderator ]
-----Original Message-----
From: nnsquad-bounces+nnsquad=bobf.frankston.com@nnsquad.org
[mailto:nnsquad-bounces+nnsquad=bobf.frankston.com@nnsquad.org] On Behalf Of
Lauren Weinstein
Sent: Friday, November 27, 2009 01:44
To: nnsquad@nnsquad.org
Subject: [ NNSquad ] Comcast/NBC Merger would pose new challenges for FCC
Comcast/NBC Merger would pose new challenges for FCC
http://bit.ly/8fTnwq (Washington Post)
--Lauren--
NNSquad Moderator