[opendtv] Re: Apple Is Looking to the Internet Fast Lane
- From: "Manfredi, Albert E" <albert.e.manfredi@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx" <opendtv@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 22 May 2014 23:10:19 +0000
Craig Birkmaier wrote:
> Perhaps the reason there was nothing surprising here is that there is
> nothing new here.
>
> As usual, you accuse Apple of "walled garden" behavior, even as they do
> what competitors have been doing for years.
Wasn't Apple anxious to get in bed with Comcast, to sell them a proprietary
STB? Wasn't Apple the first to drop Flash, to be sure and have their iToy users
dependent more on iTunes? Doesn't Apple determine what software is written for
their devices? Doesn't Apple restrict the OSs that can be used on their Macs?
So if Apple does not oppose an FCC ruling that permits a sort of re-invention
of walled gardens on the Internet, for entertainment that is, why would anyone
be surprised? I thought, DUH!
> Not only are these deals common, but they have been around for years, Rayburn
> wrote.
That's certainly true, and I also pointed that out to you and to the FCC.
That's why Wheeler shouldn't make a huge deal about fast lanes per se. But the
broader question of net neutrality and of conflict of interest for MVPD/ISP
companies, and of the scarcity of competition now for ISP services (since they
are owned by the same local quasi-monopolies that offer cabled MVPD service),
are questions that do need to be addressed.
>> Both are government regulation, so which are they railing against?
>
> I think it is Title II.
I'm not so sure. The complainers continue to point at other countries that have
cheaper broadband. Just how do these other countries achieve that? If you look
at the FCC blogs, EVERYONE seems to bitch about the fast lane idea, and
EVERYONE favors classifying broadband as a telecom service. So, what does that
say? I think people are simply confused, but feel okay complaining about
regulation anyway. That's always a hood knee-jerk reaction.
>> Yet other point is, it's pretty obvious that success of the Internet
>> was very largely due to the fact that government-regulated Title II
>> telephone lines
> I believe that this was just the free market taking advantage of an
> obvious, but short lived, set of training wheels.
Which doesn't invalidate the point. If we start seeing MVPD/ISP content being
blocked, prices increased, capacity caps, and/or any number of other practices
to which the Internet has blissfully been immune until recently, you can expect
this wonderful medium to become far less wonderful.
> Bottom like the barriers to real market competition are significant.
We know that. So what you do is you regulate only that aspect that is expensive
to build, i.e. the infrastructure, especially the infrastructure through
neighborhoods, because it cannot be competitive.
Bert
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