Every time my friend Michael Sean Wright and I have recorded a conversation (for a podcast, testing purposes, or any other reason), he’s taken to tagging it out with “Go Net Neutrality,” as a callback to a test podcast we did last week with the WeTokU service.

Since then, I’ve put forth the argument in a number of podcast appearances (including the latest episode of my political podcast with fellow ANGLEr Art Lindsey) that goes a little like this: “It sounds good to say ‘Go Network Neutrality!’ and encourage our friends to make calls to our governmental representatives to stifle competition and further inhibit free speech.”

The inevitable response from whomever is interviewing me on the subject is “How will Network Neutrality regulation inhibit free speech? I thought that the intention would be to ensure that free speech isn’t inhibited.”

“Of course, that’s the intention,” I always respond. “The truth is, though, that if the big telecom companies had any business savvy at all, they would pray that network neutrality regulation was given the full weight of law, because it virtually guarantees that any major provider of consumer or business-grade internet access will never see a new competitor so long as these regulations are in place.”

This is a fact.  As I’ve talked about before, the real threat to American network neutrality isn’t that we have no laws enforcing it, but the set of market dynamics we’ve allowed to take over in this country virtually assuring a permanent duopoly situation.

If you ask anyone who understands what Network Neutrality is whether or not they’d prefer a company that is or isn’t net neutral, they’ll almost always pick the network neutral provider. As it stands in almost all US markets, there are only at best two real choices for broadband internet. In most cases, both have either admitted to or are suspected of being non-network neutral, and they can get away with it due to a combination of public indifference and lack of choice.

You Too Can Start a Broadband Carrier

I’ve taken to using the following examples in my interviews and in my podcasts lately, because it’s true, bears out my experience, and perfectly illustrates the flaws in proposednetwork neutrality regulations. It’s relatively easy to start competing with the big boys, given a small capital expenditure (say about $10-30k to fund it for the first year or so), you could start up a local area broadband ISP that offers wireless or microwave services to a few metropolitan city blocks, perhaps servicing a few thousand customers or more.

In the past, I’ve seen companies that take this tactic (a couple of examples from South Florida spring to mind) and grow to be not-unformidable regional providers of broadband.

Now, imagine, because of governmental network neutrality mandates you’re now required to bolt on an $800,000 deep packet inspection piece of hardware so that the government can ensure you’re treating all packets equally.

Does that sound like it’s going to promote competition or inhibit it?

That’s exactly what sort of future we’re looking at – either the government is going to get serious about network neutrality and begin enforcing it with serious and very expensive iron fists, or they’re going to be ineffectual and simply require broadband carriers to disclose exactly what their network neutrality policy is.

Either way, we’re still left with a non-competitive landscape where we have a choice between tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum to provide our connection to the rest of the world.

Let Me Be Clear: I’m Pro-Network Neutrality

Just so there is no mis-understanding – I very much am for the principals of network neutrality.  A free and open internet is essential for the continued existence of this thing called the Web that we’ve come to know and love.

How we ensure we keep a network neutral internet is where I differ from most folks.  I’m not a shill for the cable companies.  I haven’t received a check from a cableco in over a decade now, ever since I moved on from Cox Communications. There are no influencing factors here other than my own analysis and economic insights.

The truth is that free market dynamics, if they were allowed to unfold free of government subsidy and free of anti-competitive practices from the big boys, would virtually assure that we have network neutral options in every market. We currently don’t live in that world, but the one way to assure we never get there is to raise the barrier to entry to the broadband provision market by increasing federal regulation.