Back in the days of Ma Bell as common carrier, it was perfectly possible for the phone company to charge more for a T1 line than for a residential voice line. Similarly, there's no reason the companies that provide the infrastructure for the Internet can't provide different levels of service at different prices, while still being subject to the constraint of net neutrality: namely, the price depends on the level of service, but not the identity of the purchaser. Imagine a world in which a railroad owned the only track to a power plant and was allowed to make it difficult or expensive to receive coal from any mine other than one owned by the railroad. That's why railroads are regulated as common carriers, required to haul anybody's coal at a price related to their underlying costs, and why Internet infrastructure companies ought to be regulated likewise.
Posts by ecoli
1 publicly visible post • joined 29 Jan 2014
Biting the hand that feeds IT
