Why Net neutrality matters

SavetheInternet.com is a coalition advocating for network neutrality

Hands Off: Phone, cable companies' argument against network neutrality

TEXT OF INTERVIEW

KAI RYSSDAL: It's getting most of the press, but there is more afoot in Washington than just immigration. The Senate's getting into high tech tomorrow. The debate starts on the Communications Act of 2006, 135 pages worth of rules and regulations. Doesn't sound like much, but the companies that will have to live by those rules aren't all that happy about them. Marketplace's Lisa Napoli has been covering the story.

Hey, Lisa.

LISA NAPOLI: Hey.

RYSSDAL: The big buzzword around this bill has been something called "net neutrality." And let me understand this for a second. I thought the Internet was kind of neutral to begin with?

NAPOLI: Everybody's confused, Kai. You're not the only one. Right now there are rules that keep your Internet service provider from making it harder for you to connect to a certain Web site. They can't control what you see or can't see online, or what you can access online. They just provide you the ability to get online. Those service providers also can't charge the owner of a Web site for preferential treatment. It's something the big players on the net like Google and eBay have been lobbying to see continued, otherwise it could end up costing them a lot of money.

RYSSDAL: Google and eBay, though, are the companies that provide services on the Internet. What about the companies that actually provide that kind of activity, the phone companies and cable companies?

NAPOLI: Yeah, exactly. Well, they're not so hot on this idea of net neutrality. In fact, they call it "net neutering." And it's really confusing to muddle through both of the PR campaigns that have been going on. While the proponents of network neutrality call their campaign "Save the Internet"...

RYSSDAL: Mm-hm.

NAPOLI: ...the phone companies and cable companies have been counterspinning with their own campaign which sounds very similar, "Hands Off the Internet." Neutering them--net neutering, keeping them from making deals and building out technology.

RYSSDAL: Well, and that technology is, in a way, what's at the root of this because as we become more able to do big things on the Web, like video and stuff that takes a lot of band width, I mean, that's where all this is going.

NAPOLI: Exactly. And it's important to point out that that's really the crux of this debate. That net neutrality is just one tiny piece of big fat communications legislation. Both sides agree that the infrastructure of the net is being stressed and getting strained the more we go online to download music and video or to make phone calls, stuff that takes up a long of band width. And the meat's really about cable, video, how in the future we might access it from our homes.

Here's where you get really happy, Kai, not to be in Washington, because while the cable and phone guys are both united against net neutrality, they're on opposite sides of another piece of the legislation. The phone guys want to be able to get into the video delivery business in a way that's too complicated and expensive for them right now so they can go really head to head with cable. And, of course, the cable industry isn't so happy about that. Some opponents have been pointing out that the legislation as it's written will make the already skyrocketing prices for cable and net access even more expensive, and in doing so increase the digital divide.

RYSSDAL: Lisa, do you think this is another step toward making the Internet basically a public utility, you know, something that's regulated and controlled in some degree by government?

NAPOLI: There really is no easy way to answer this. And all of this, Kai, has been evolving over the past 10 years that public Internet use has been so massive and grown so massively. I mean, remember there use to be a whole lot of tiny Internet access providers out there...

RYSSDAL: Mm-hmm.

NAPOLI: ...before different regulations put them out of business? And all of this technology changes radically over time as it evolves. As you point out, all the new services are rolling out. And remember, not that long ago we were breaking up Ma Bell. Now we're reuniting it. So even when we do have an answer for this, it just seems to keep rolling around and rolling back and forth.

RYSSDAL: Marketplace's Lisa Napoli. Thanks, Lisa.

NAPOLI: Thanks, Kai.

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Transcription by BurrellsLuce