Normally in my posts, I include lots of links to other studies, citations and background information from other blogs and the like.  I spend a lot of my time in my job researching communications and Internet industry and market trends and trying to understand where things are headed and why.  I try to include some of that research in my posts.

 

But I listened to the discussion about network management at the FCC hearing last week and I wanted to offer an opinion, just a straight up view I have after having listened to the debate.

 

I’ve been involved with the Internet since the early 80’s.   I was pretty active with list serves at the time and had a 1200 baud modem when I started out (I was not quite at the beginning of the dial up era with 300 baud modems but close!).   My belief is that the Internet has been built around a cooperative/competitive model with both characteristics an integral part of its success.   The Internet is an evolving standard that has always had its share of growing pains and it continues to face them today.  The rise of FTP (File Transfer Protocol) caused serious concerns back in 1986 because the Internet at the time lacked a functional congestion avoidance mechanism.  This was patched in 1987 and the congestion algorithms developed and adopted then remain important mechanisms even today.   The process of adopting these algorithms involved a host of players, including network companies.

 

By the mid 1990s, the rise of the web browser turned the “World Wide Web” into the “World Wide Wait” as some used to laughingly call it.  Part of the problem was the way HTTP protocols and web browsers worked and changes were adopted over time that helped make browsers work more effectively with network constraints.  Over time, a combination of factors – from better browsers to better servers at the content end to more capacity on the networks – largely corrected these problems.  Again, players at all levels were involved in the effort.

 

I know some believe that things are different today but I think a lot of this is due to the demonizing that has crept in on both sides of the debate.  I believe that most of the players still have strong incentives to work together while they also in some arenas compete.  Government, industry and academics – as well as individuals – all worked together over the last two decades to make things work and to help the Internet evolve. Government was involved too but not in a formal, highly regulatory way.  

 

I feel that this flexible, cooperative, competitive, adaptive model will get lost if government plays more and more of a regulatory role. I really don’t think that is to the benefit of the Internet or to most of the players involved. It is not even to the benefit of consumers ultimately since regulated competition – which is likely what would evolve – is usually not very robust.  I hope for the sake of the continued evolution and growth of the Internet we can avoid regulation in the guise of addressing network management issues.