The real 'slow lane' threat to the Internet

[Commentary] There is a subversive plan to slow the Internet, and it must be stopped. The new plan, now being contemplated by the Federal Communications Commission, could alter the Internet forever.

It could slow speeds, limit the content and applications consumers can access, and create a two-tier system that favors some companies over others. The plan even has a code name: it’s called “Title II.” For all of Title II’s potential for catastrophic harm, it offers no upside, even for its most hearty proponents. The bête noire of the neutrality fundamentalists is so called “paid priority,” where some bits (like high resolution videos that require fast and reliable delivery) are prioritized over mundane applications (like data backups or routine emails, where it doesn’t matter if the bits arrive now or a few milliseconds later).

But common carrier regulation of phones or trains (of which Title II is an example) explicitly allows service discrimination (paid priority) as long as all similarly situated customers get the same offer. Title II thus doesn’t even solve the supposed problem — but would cause new problems of its own. Far from a burden on small Web start-ups, paid priority could be an inexpensive and crucial tool. Behemoths like Google, Amazon, and Netflix have built out vast networks and content delivery systems of their own -- to speed the delivery of their own bits.

But small firms focusing on a first time product don’t have the wherewithal to match that physical infrastructure. They often use CDNs to deliver static content. But for other real-time services like gaming, or education, or health care, they may prefer to pay a network provider to move their bits and provide their customers with a first-rate experience. Prohibiting paid priority and other network services could thus harm start-ups and reinforce the big Web firms’ position of dominance.

[Swanson writes for Forbes]