« Missing the Bigger Picture of Net Neutrality... Consumer Choice... »

it's everywhere, full scale panic about net neutrality is but a few key strokes away. Om Malik and Mark Evans and Scot Peterson and the rest of the free world are writing furiously about the freedom of the internet, and the efforts of the carriers and telcos to "stifle internet creativity"….

Why is it that everyone seems to be missing the bigger picture here? 5 years ago, consumers and businesses were so very excited about using VoIP over the net, and then they realized, yikes, the quality isn't all that great, i think I'll wait till more of the bugs get worked out….

And then a few years ago, corporations again thought about taking another run at VoIP as a business application, again using the internet, with VoIP phones for their remote workers, and again, the quality was lacking, so they resorted to VPNs using the internet, and cellphones for voice. During the whole time, big companies kept asking: "when are you going to have quality of service on the internet? I can't risk my business applications over a public network, with no guarantees"…. And MPLS networks were born. Quality of service, Class of Service, DYNAMIC Class of Service, all geared to corporations who had to have guarantees on bits and bites. Companies bought MPLS networks to move their corporate app traffic. They couldn't risk the uncertainty of the internet for mission critical, revenue driving traffic.

But still they asked, "when are you going to get quality of service on the internet"?

Now, the telecom industry is baby steps from being able to implement a global, meshed MPLS network, capable of carrying end to end, quality of service internet traffic. Now, the Net Neutrailty debate bubbles to the surface, wanting to force all traffic to be the same. Wanting to force all carriers to be blind to the bits they are carrying. Wanting to squash classes of service.

Folks - classes of service are a GOOD THING. The last thing i want is a neighbourhood full of gamers bringing down my internet VPN when I have a proposal that has to get out the door by 9:00 am on a monday morning. Classes of service don't have to be negative, and they can allow for the consumer to have a CHOICE, which, really, is what the internet should be all about.

Again I say, bring on classes of service, let people dynamically choose how they want their bits treated, let them be able to choose daily, hourly, over a portal, with an easy to use interface.

LET THE PEOPLE CHOOSE.

Technorati : MPLS, Mark Evans, Net Neutrality, Om Makil, VoIP