Network Diversity -- A Misguided Policy

[SOURCE: Trevor R. Roycroft, Ph.D.]
A Response to Christopher S. Yoo’s cable industry-funded “Promoting Broadband Through Network Diversity.” Yoo, a Vanderbilt University law professor, argues in a recent white paper that the regime of open access on which the Internet was founded is actually harmful to innovation, investment, and technology deployment. Professor Yoo supports an alternative to an open Internet, encouraging policymakers to embrace "network diversity." A policy of network diversity would enable last mile-broadband network providers to introduce proprietary network protocols, enter into exclusive agreements with content providers, and discriminate against non-affiliated providers of Internet content, applications, and services. Professor Yoo argues that network diversity will inspire true competition for Internet services, and that this competition can only emerge when multiple last-mile broadband networks are in place. Professor Yoo’s counsel to policy makers that they should offer “humility” and deference to market forces, when those market
forces are associated with market power, is bad advice.
http://www.roycroftconsulting.org/response_to_Yoo.pdf