Net neutrality – the idea that all internet traffic should be treated equally as it flows over broadband networks – is one of those slippery phrases that means different things to different people, depending on which side of the fence they sit.
Take the argument today between Google and the Wall Street Journal. The newspaper accused Google – which has been the strongest advocate of net neutrality, at least in public – of backing away from the principle by making secret arrangements with broadband companies to have its own internet traffic delivered faster.
Rick Whitt, Google’s top lawyer in Washington DC, promptly shot back with a blog post in which he denounced the report as “confused’ (and said he’d been misquoted.) For good measure Larry Lessig, the eminent internet rights lawyer who has just announced he’s swapping coasts with a move to Harvard Law School, called the the report “really extraordinary.” An alleged softening on the issue that was attributed to him was nothing of the sort and his views had not changed, he said.
The fly in the ointment here is edge caching – the practice of holding the most frequently-accessed online content on servers based closer to users, so that it can be served up faster. Through an arrangement it calls Google Global Cache, Google says it places its own cache servers in the local facilities of broadband ISPs.
Google is right to argue that this does not contravene the principles of net neutrality. It doesn’t involve the network operators in favouring one internet company’s traffic over another’s. As Lessig points out, no harm is done as long as the colocation agreement to put the servers into the local ISP offices is not exclusive, since Google’s rivals can negotiate similar deals for themselves (there should also be a “most-favoured nation” clause to make sure everyone pays the same, Lessig adds.)
Of course, using its massive cash reserves to build a “fast lane” to reach its online users gives Google an advantage over companies that aren’t so well off – particularly the start-ups whose creativity, Googlers never tire of saying, is vital to future innovation on the internet. Also, network providers will have less incentive to maintain their core common transport infrastructure if their biggest and richest customers strike private deals for better service.
Those, however, are the realities of the market – it’s hard to see how regulation can make a difference.
