Does Network Neutrality Stifle Innovation Or Boost It?

Hickins talks to Skydeck founder and CEO Jason Devitt about Network Neutrality. Skydeck provides services to help users organize their wireless communications and contacts.) Devitt is an "ardent supporter" of the view that incumbent carriers shouldn't be allowed to use their networks to discriminate against service or content providers. "Entrepreneurs should not require permission in order to set up a business or bring a new product to market," he said. What about the fact that the incumbents invested all that money on the pipes upon which he wants to piggy-back? It seems logical that if they built the network, they should be free to decide who gets to use it. Ah yes, except that they're called incumbents for a reason. They were handed the right to build the infrastructure (and tear up our streets) and enjoy the numerous benefits of incumbency, "with the understanding that the public reserves the right to impose certain conditions on them in the future in return for granting them this huge privilege." To the idea that rivals should simply go build their own networks, "the reality is you can't -- local communities won't allow 30 different companies to dig up streets... The compromise is that we grant a handful of companies the privilege to all this pipe, subject to other services being able to use the pipe as a shared facility." Sort of like other common carriers, like railroads, who get to charge for this service, and who are exempted from liability for criminal or fraudulent behavior (like piracy) committed on their networks by third parties. According to Devitt, Skydeck would have a much greater range of services to offer consumers were it not for the fact that carriers act as gatekeepers of the network. "With every new feature we're thinking about, every new product we're bringing to market, we have to think about what the implications are from that perspective," he lamented.