Today the Federal Communications Commission is voting on taking public comment on Chairman Julius Gnachowski’s proposal for more control regarding net neutrality. The idea here is that the FCC would have the power to impose rules for broadband and wireless service providers to allow all applications and devices on their networks. A study at the New York University Law School indicates that such regulations would actually be debilitating to the industry overall.
Charles Davidson, director of the law school’s Advanced Communications Law & Policy Institute, did the study with Bret Swanson, president of technology researcher Entropy Economics in Zionsville, Indiana. Their report emphasizes the decreased amount of investment and development that could occur as a result of this level of FCC control. Massive losses for the IT industry are estimated at $80 billion, according to the study. Bloomberg reports,
The study’s authors believe regulation would reduce service providers’ willingness to invest by shrinking their revenue opportunities. For example, they say service providers wouldn’t be able to offer a hospital a higher-quality network service needed for telemedicine applications. “A lot of telemedicine services are real-time in nature,” says Davidson. “If network owners are not allowed to manage their networks to allow for reliable delivery of those services, then we’ll see those services not developing as they should.”
It’s a finding that supports a few points we’ve brought up here. Take small businesses, for instance. The costs involved for adhering to certain FCC-regulations could have the opposite effect of the ideals behind net neutrality. Discouraging innovation and controlling business initiatives are possible byproducts of what the FCC is purportedly aiming for.
Of course, the real point of contention is in the details; how will net neutrality be realized, enforced and ultimately regulated itself? How can business interests and consumer interests be considered? These are the questions we’ve been asking for years, and this summer’s series of votes could actually begin to take us further down one road or another.
