You can sense where the Internet may be heading by looking at the bandwidth policy platforms that core infrastructure vendors are offering to carriers.
With equipment from Tekelec, a major networking equipment player, cable companies can monitor and allocate bandwidth dynamically, as well as grant special deals to subscribers.
For example, a video web site could temporarily allow downloads to not count against a customer’s data limits as set by the cable ISP. Or the web site of a content provider could purchase better QoS—lower latency or more bandwidth—between its servers and subscribers’ endpoint devices.
Tekelec’s Camiant Policy Management platform would handle all this.
There’s nothing inherently illegal with allowing carriers to price discriminate based on volume, service, or even time of day.
However, under the FCC’s plan to reclassify cable broadband as telecommunications, it would be illegal (Section 201 of the Communications Act) for common carriers to offer prices for their services that are not “just or reasonable.”
Even the light-regulation approach that is being proposed—the FCC would forbear most of the title II sections— is too much for the likes of AT&T, Comcast, et al. They would prefer to keep the broadband access pipes completely unregulated.
The carriers’ idea of a free and open Internet is one where they can price discriminate without fear of any competitive pressures.
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- The FCC rebounds on broadband (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Tekelec Camiant Policy Management
- Tekelec Ex Part Notice (fcc.gov)
