[AusNOG] [Internet Australia - members] Net neutrality

[ausftth at mail.com]

Paul,

While I appreciate the effort :), the below is just a beginner's primer to Net Neutrality and does in no way address "consolidation of transit by large content providers".

> Here is the 'explain it to a 5 year old' version:
> http://www.theopeninter.net/

> The adult version is that the existence of CDNs impose barriers to entry,
> both cost and technological, to new entrant competitors,
   Well, duh. As long as you can't run your site from your basement at home, anything represents some kind of barrier to entry. CDNs impose no *significant* barrier to entry, not even to new entrants. Moreover CDNs are no barrier at all to equivalent size competitors, which is a very important point.

> and alters cost models for other services sharing the same bandwidth.
  Citation needed. Also what same bandwidth are they sharing? Did you somehow move to the access network suddenly?

> My view is that it's actually very difficult to make a case that CDNs are
> anticompetitive to the degree where one would expect regulation.
  That's because CDNs are not anticompetetive.

> Ziggy Switkowski is carefully sitting on the fence, recognising this as a debate
> we need to have, while not advocating any particular outcome.
   Ziggy is just trying to hang on to his CVC charges. Most, if not all, problems would disappear if CVC charges were dropped.

> Would legislation to ensure that CDNs are an open platform for carrying 3rd
> party traffic be worthwhile?
   No, because the market has already solved this problem.

Jared