August 28, 2003
Open Access and/or e2e Requirement?
At a used-book store, I picked up a copy of What’s Yours is Mine: Open Access and the Rise of Infrastructure Socialism, from the Cato Institute and its friend, the Regulatory Blob Monster.
This book presents the overall anti-regulation argument for so-called “natural monopolies” and “essential facilities”, including case studies of the electricity grid, phone network, broadband, must-carry mandates, and software applications. As far as broadband goes, they favor letting cable and DSL do whatever they want with their lines and, naturally, point to the potential competition from wireless, satellite and other forms of broadband. They believe that broadband providers need control over their wires to recoup their investments and that providers will voluntarily allow others access.
Though I always feel like there is a degree of exaggeration in these libertarian rants, many of the economic arguments seem rather sound. If you want this side of the argument, the book’s definitely worth checking out – it’s a succinct, well-written read. For the other side, see Lessig and Lemley’s The End of E2E. To them, there is plenty of reason to believe that broadband providers will regulate the content Internet users can access. Even though cable providers might not discriminate, the possibility will discourage innovation. Because providers have shown little willingness to voluntarily provide access to other ISPs, Lessig and Lemley argue that it’s worth regulating now to avoid future harms.
I was disappointed that the Cato book didn’t address an alternative to open access mandates that could be a decent compromise – a rule mandating the preservation of e2e. As Lessig and Lemley point out, there is a lot to be gained from competition between ISPs through an open access requirement; but, if the principle we’re trying to protect is e2e, why not target it directly? Broadband providers could recoup their investment through monopoly prices and bundled ISP access so long as they preserve the Internet’s architecture. Lessig proposes this towards the end of The Future of Ideas. This plan would constrain business models to an extent, but it seems far more mild than open access.
This seems to be the direction of the new coalition seeking further cable regulation. Lessig links to an interesting example of how such a neutrality principle could work.
Filed by Derek Slater at 4:13 pm under General news
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