The Google/Verizon FCC Proposal

There are two perspectives on the proposal Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) and Verizon (NYSE:VZ) have offered in regards to net neutrality: that it is self-serving and harmful to small businesses, independent sites, and non-profits, or that it is intentionally ambiguous in order to engage the evolving nature of the web.

Net neutrality is an idea that that internet providers should treat all sites equally. This is not, however, always the case: providers will often load some sites faster than others – sites that pay for the privilege. In the absence of net neutrality, bigger sites will dominate the net through accessibility and smaller sites with tighter budgets will suffer as a result. Providers could, in effect, start shaping and manipulating the way in which we access the internet by controlling broadband in this way.

By imposing net neutrality, providers will have to treat all sites equally to level the playing field for fair competition, ensuring that all sites have an equal opportunity to reach users.

Google and Verizon recently made a proposal for FCC regulation that has been troubling for a number of reasons. Although it does call for some regulation, it also states that the FCC “would enforce the consumer protection and nondiscrimination requirements through case-by-case adjudication, but would have no rule-making authority with respect to those provisions.”

Although it is important to recognize that the way in which we use the internet will evolve over time, the overly ambiguous language of the proposal has many believing that their commitment toward regulation is a only a false, feigned gesture toward neutrality. The proposal should be flexible, but not flimsy.

What is more troubling is that Google and Verizon are in concurrence that net neutrality should not extend to mobile phones. To be sure, mobile phones operate on different principles than computers, but given the rate at which smart phones are developing, it seems absurd to think that the distinction between the way in which we use our computers and our phones will remain as clear as it has in the past.

The FCC has yet to take a stance on the proposal and has instead requested that Google and Verizon provide more information.