Earlier this week, Niall and I got together to record the latest edition of Om & Niall Pod Sessions. There has been an increase in the focus on two-tier Internet, and network neutrality has become one of the hot button issues, we are likely to hear more of in 2006.
In recent months large cable companies and phone companies have indicated that they will be giving preference to their own traffic, which could mean bad news for some such as Skype. Other have threatened to charge Google’s of the world for access to their network. I think there is more smoke than fire at this time, but the future could be entirely different.
Don’t expect the phone companies or cable companies to degrade somebody’s service intentionally, because that is going to become a problem for them in Washington D.C. I firmly believe that this is going to have an impact on Silicon Valley start-ups, and innovation, but how, it is hard to say at this point. Clearly, we shall follow this story as 2006 unfolds.
We have posted the transcript of the entire show, which spans about 23 minutes. You can download the podcast here. Subscribe to the show in iTunes.
Om, there is some good research by a former colleague of mine, Barabara van Schewick, about network neutrality.
here and here (PDF)