Net Neutrality question for IP list

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Net Neutrality question for IP list
Date: Thu, 16 Feb 2006 11:10:10 -0600
From: Floyd Ferguson <floyd.ferguson () us fujitsu com>
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
CC: Floyd Ferguson <floyd.ferguson () us fujitsu com>,        Floyd
Ferguson <f.ferguson () verizon net>,        Rod Naphan
<Rod.Naphan () us fujitsu com>

Professor Farber,

I have a question about the net neutrality issue that perhaps could
be clarified by some of the participants in the Interesting People
mailing list.

Professor Lessig, in his Feb-7 Senate Testimony pays considerable
attention to "application competition" and the risks associated with
"access-tiering", characterized as adding "an additional tax on
network innovators based on the particular service being offered."

It's not entirely clear how this differs from a definition of
"service differentiation ... to accommodate heterogeneous application
and user requirements, and to permit differentiated pricing of
Internet service" [RFC2475], and which forms the basis for the
Differentiated Services Architecture.

So, my specific question is, within the concept of Network Neutrality
advocated by Lessig, whether a broadband provider like BellSouth
would or would not be allowed to develop and deploy a RFC2474-based
service to offer potential customers like Mark Cuban, that could
support unique application requirements, as for instance,
substantially superior error loss rate or packet delay variation
between the service access point and the residential connection of a
BellSouth broadband customer, which would enable Cuban's application
to successfully play video to the large screen plasma TV rather than
a computer screen.

Certainly one can with little effort imagine how a carrier like
BellSouth could use such a protocol to develop services for a
customer like Cuban to provide significant competitive advantage for
video applications for BellSouth broadband subscribers compared to
video applications from other companies not willing to pay for such a
service.  And how these differenitated services would yield
significant benefit to the residential broadband user.

Again, the question is whether this would be OK or not OK within
Lessig's framework?  If not, why not?

Thanks,

Floyd Ferguson
Distinguished Strategic Planner
Fujitsu Network Communications
floyd.ferguson () us fujitsu com

-------------------------------------
You are subscribed as lists-ip () insecure org
To manage your subscription, go to
  http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip

Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/