Net Neutrality?

I'm still not sure I understand the net neutrality debate.  From what I can surmise it's a battle between content providers (Amazon, Netflix, Google, etc.) and data providers (Comcast, AT&T, Time Warner, etc.).  Data providers want to charge content providers more for premium services (maybe faster transmission of their content, for example) while content providers want everyone treated equally, no premium services offered.

You can probably figure out each side's motivations, but it's not obvious which would be better for consumers.  The data providers argue that by charging more for special services, they can invest more in higher-speed lines and it will help slow the increase in congestion.

Eduardo Porter wrote an op-ed about net neutrality.  I wonder if you can determine which side he's on.

Anyway, in his opening paragraph he suggests an analogy of automobiles on a highway.  He argues that certain automobile makes would cut deals with the highway operators so that they could use "special" lanes, while all other cars were stuck in the slow, free lanes. 

Though it's a good way to visualize what's going on, the details confuse some of the issues.  First, this analogy suggests that the data providers, if they could offer premium service, would ignore the non-premium data streams, leading to content building until the bandwidth was exhausted.  That isn't necessarily true.  It will still be in the data providers' interest to ensure that their customers have reasonably fast access to the content they want.

Second, he argues that if one company cuts a deal to use the premium lane, then they'll then charge customers more for usage.  I don't see what's wrong with that.  It happens all the time.  Each cable channel has to cut a deal with cable providers, all of commercial business depends on contracts between businesses.  This doesn't necessarily make things more expensive.  If they make their product too expensive we won't buy it.  Mr. Porter seems to forget the ability of customers to decline to buy their product.  This is the pressure that will keep their prices low.

They're could be a problem if the data provider IS the content provider and gives itself a discount.  That I'll discuss in a future post.