In the late '90s when most around the world were still waking up to the internet, the Department of Justice and Microsoft were preparing to go head-to-head in a case many thought would define the future of software and digital commerce. Today’s net neutrality debate stands to have a similar impact, but will technical compliance regulations really deliver the equal access proponents insist it will?
In the famous case of United States vs. Microsoft Corporation the DoJ was convinced by the premise of Netscape, and others, that a browser monopoly would mean a monopoly on how users consumed content. Competition, DoJ argued, would keep the browser agnostic and the consumer free to choose. Today no single portal dominates the market.
While at face value the case appeared to be an argument over an icon for Internet Explorer on the desktop (specifically how, why, under what conditions, and what pretense it appeared there), at the heart United States v. Microsoft Corp. was a battle for the way in which users would experience the Internet. (Check out John Helleman’s masterpiece for the story.) At the time it was hard to imagine the limited experience of Netscape Navigator 3.0 could threaten the desktop publishing powerhouse of Microsoft Office or Apple’s QuickTime. Yet within five years we had MySpace and editable Google Maps. Within the next five Google Docs, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook took center stage. In short order the browser became the preeminent experience, enough so that Google launched a browser-only device.
Today the programs that exist on our computers or smartphone make up a fractional percentage of what we 'do' on our devices, and the majority of our experience takes place ‘online’ in what is effectively the modern day equivalent of 'the browser.' This may seem strange, especially in the app-centric world of iOS and Android, yet the majority of apps are simply an input and output for content that is created, distributed, modified, and experienced over the Internet.
The content, what we interact with and manipulate in large part exists external to our devices. In the mid 90’s the Internet was a pipeline for content and information exchange. By 2007 it had become not just the medium for exchange, but the native home of that content. Cloud storage is not where you back up or share your content, but where it is created. Instagram doesn’t sync to your phone, your phone syncs to Instagram.
What does this have to do with net neutrality?
The current debate over net neutrality focuses on the intermediary carriers who connect your device to the content you are consuming, creating, and modifying. But this debate fails to recognize the complex relationships between media creators, distributors, content providers, and end-point devices. In many parts of the country, local-wireless broadband providers are gaining market share, yet this “last-mile” wireless distribution, and the wireless connections on cellular networks, are not currently covered under proposed Net Neutrality rules. As Wall St. Journal reporter Gautham Nagesh noted recently, wireless providers have already begun exempting some applications from counting against users monthly data total. Even if Net Neutrality rules were applied to wireless providers, “free data” policies have received little attention. Modern interconnected applications act as content portals to their own kingdoms. You can browse the Internet without leaving Facebook. You can send money through Snapchat. Ebook Kindles sync Amazon content over cell towers for free, and it’s only a matter of time before they deliver other Amazon-accessed media wirelessly at no data cost to the user.
Which poses the question: functionally, is free data still neutral data?
Ecosystems are the new language of digital content distribution, and as the line between content creator, distributor, and hardware manufacturer blur, we risk being left with outdated policies ill-equipped for what may arise in five years time.
The real question should be is Net Neutrality already an outdated paradigm?
From a corporate perspective the solution is simple. Don’t charge Netflix more to stream to you, charge you more to watch Netflix – in the form of bandwidth caps and overage costs. Or, you could watch OnDemand and it won’t count towards your monthly data cap. Your choice.
