Should the Internet Have Toll Booths?
The real question is whether some content should get preferential treatment. Let’s hypothetically say a broadband provider like Comcast signs a deal with a content provider like NBC. In this hypothetical scenario NBC shows can now stream in full HD over Comcast’s “pipes” to customer’s computers. However, CBS programs will stream much slower because Comcast has been paid to give NBC preferential treatment.
Just to be very clear, this scenario is hypothetical. However, it is a scenario that may play out. There are many who would argue that premium placement should go to people or companies that are willing to pay for it. After all, doesn’t cable television have tiered pricing that provides premium content to subscribers of more expensive tiers? I don’t think the issue is that simplistic.
The internet is very different than any other communications medium the world has known. It has leveled the playing field between the have’s and have-not’s. Information, which is power, can be accessed by far more people far more easily. The world’s greatest innovations of the past couple of decades have come online. If you start to make access to information or the ability to innovate too expensive, then power becomes concentrated in too few places. While big corporations might like that idea, it would be terrible for the rest of us. The internet must remain open and free.