Net Neutrality
12月
16日
To make are websites and emails are operate smoothly, we buy huge amount of bandwidth from the service providers. So, companies like NETFLIX, Google, YouTube, Amazon, Microsoft, eBay, PayPal, Yahoo, Apple … they are all paying huge amount of money make sure they contes are being sent to the consumers without delay.
So, what is Net Neutrality?
It is not Internet service providers serving contents providers. They are being paid. The only companies who are not happy about Net Neutrality are the companies providing contents to the consumers for small amount of monthly money. They want to get paid from the contents providers. To do that those service providers want to be able to slow down the content delivery from the companies they can get paid like NETFLIX, Google, YouTube, Amazon, Microsoft, eBay, PayPal, Yahoo, Apple and so on.
This is especially problematic when the consumer do not have multiple service providers to access Internet. If you have multiple service providers, you can simply switch out of the provider who is slowing down the content delivery.
Net Neutrality will not be an issue when all service providers own and operate enough bandwidth but that is not the case. It is like an Interstate Highway system, they are always congested. The only way you can increase the capacity is to build and add more lanes or highways. To build more lanes and highways, you need funding. It is same for Internet.
When you think of Net Neutrality, whether service providers want to charge content providers or consumers, it will at the end all come down to consumers directly or indirectly. But you cannot not force free market by Net Neutrality either. That will stop or slow down the expansion and innovations and investments.
My take on Net Neutrality … I think at the end less government regulations are always better than more regulations. Government should be there to police the system not to manage the system. At the end, free market always wins.
December 15, 2017
Kenichi Uchikura
Chairman
Pacific Software Publishing, Inc.