I knew when the whole “Motorola Sholes” (now Droid) thing started becoming a reality, that I was going to be talking a lot about Verizon and Google. But I never imagined it would come to this: they’ve issued a joint statement on net neutrality. Verizon and Google. Now, as we know, Verizon and Google have quite a love connection, but this is an issue where they clearly have opposing ideas (read on if you’re unfamiliar with net neutrality). It’s refreshing (and kind of insane) to see that they are contributing to the discussion together, and they actually want to come to some sort of conclusion that makes everybody happy. Congress can’t even do that. Bravo, guys.
The net neutrality discussion is really starting to heat up (finally), and I talk a lot about the decisions businesses like Verizon and Google make a lot, but this is the big deal. This is one of the most important internet-and-tech-related conversations we, as a society, are having right now. Even Mr. I’m-awesome-in-congress-but-a-jerk-when-I’m-running-for-president John McCain is taking a public stance. This is big stuff.
In the most basic words I can say (I don’t have all DAY, guys), the discussion is about what rights big internet-related companies have. On one side, you have businesses like Google (or rather, internet overlord Google) who think that the internet should be the internet, and that ISPs such as Comcast (on land) or Verizon (in the air) or (?) (at sea) shouldn’t be able to control how you and I are able to USE the internet. Obviously, this makes sense: if ISPs have more power, they have a lot more opportunities to make more money. Companies like Google do not like this because, in theory, it means that ISPs could block certain websites, companies, applications, etc. because of what it costs them, or because it competes with a service they provide. Consider the following example (I don’t know if this is an actual part of the argument right now, but it’s simple enough to understand and it makes sense):
Text messages are very simple, data-wise. It’s merely plain text, which is just about as simple as it gets – text messages take up very little space as far as data storage is concerned (literally 1 kb or less, usually). It’s so small that it costs literally a fraction of a penny for ISPs to transfer that data. And yet, they charge you 10 cents per text message – That’s not a great ratio for you, the consumer. This is especially insane considering that, if you have a smartphone, you could send that same amount of data over your internet plan (as opposed to your separate text messaging plan) for much, much less.
ISPs such as Verizon or AT&T are allowed to charge you 10 cents per text message because hey, they’re the carriers. It’s a business, that’s what they do. And that’s fine, but as actual internet connections on small devices become more and more prevalent, not only does it start to sound more ridiculous that they are charging you so much for text messages (and for cell phone calls, which soon enough will likely be over your data plan too), when you already have an unlimited data plan. Now, Google, for example, knows that this is ridiculous, and would rather you use, say, Google Voice to send text messages over your data plan, and ditch your phone’s expensive messaging plan. It’s cheaper for you, and nice for them because you’re using their service. Score, right?
But as we’ve seen with the whole Apple/AT&T/Google Voice debacle, obviously that’s not ideal for ISPs that want to charge you more for stuff like that. They lose out because soon they won’t be able to jack up prices for all their services because of how far technology has come since the invention of the cell phone, and they don’t like that. In a non-neutral network, they would be able to, say, block you from visiting Google Voice on your phone’s browser, to get you to use their service instead (Seriously, blocking web sites? Are we in China all of a sudden? Can you tell where I lie on this issue? Good God.).
That’s just one example, and a simple one at that. This is a large, broad, complicated issue, but discussions are starting. Sure, the issue’s always been there – look back at some of my older posts and you may see that some apply to this broader concept – but the issue and it’s tag are really at the forefront now, and it’s going to get very interesting.
