Reader Forum: A positive plan for net neutrality

Editor’s Note: Welcome to our weekly Reader Forum section. In an attempt to broaden our interaction with our readers we have created this forum for those with something meaningful to say to the wireless industry. We want to keep this as open as possible, but maintain some editorial control so as to keep it free of commercials or attacks. Please send along submissions for this section to our editors at: dmeyer@ardenmediaco.com or tford@ardenmediaco.com.
Net neutrality: This term is at the core of a debate raging within the high-tech industry. Should the government act on behalf of consumers to ensure unfettered access to the Internet’s broad universe of content, applications, and services? Or, as communications service providers claim, is such intervention unnecessary? Opponents argue that government control over the Internet’s basic network would only lead to increased censorship and an invasion of privacy. Either way, the ongoing explosion in Internet traffic poses both challenges and opportunities for data service providers and infrastructure manufacturers, who must either improve the delivery of Internet services to customers or face increasing Net neutrality restrictions.
The task for service providers
Net neutrality proposes that Internet service providers offer consumers unconstrained access to all that the Internet provides – regardless of how much bandwidth they consume. Wireline and wireless service providers alike are thus challenged to keep up with the crushing increase in Internet traffic, including the hosting of large file-sharing sites and other abuse uses of bandwidth.
To balance this huge discrepancy in supply and demand, service providers must take action in three critical areas. First, service providers must establish service offerings and pricing that drive appropriate consumer behavior. Pricing plans should eliminate the potential for abusive, “all-you-can-eat” behavior in favor of metered, bandwidth-limited, or service-based pricing. Want to stream high-definition movies all day? Great, sign up for the high-bandwidth, high-usage plan at a premium.
Second, service providers must get their own houses in order. Existing engineering processes and network equipment supply chains often lack the flexibility required to support efficient spectrum utilization, major network deployment programs, and shifts in usage patterns. Executives should evaluate whether a re-vamp of their organizational model and supply chain operations would provide greater transparency and improved execution.
Third, service providers must recognize that as their businesses grow, it is increasingly important to support that momentum with resilient network operations and performance management capabilities. Lax management can degrade network performance and result in excess capacity where it is not needed. Without adequate performance management processes, months can go by before emerging bottlenecks are detected – and by that time it is too late to avoid them. Service providers able to detect and mitigate issues before they materialize will be steps ahead of regulators and competing providers.
The infrastructure opportunity
Network infrastructure providers also play a critical role in the traffic management problem. Breakthroughs in infrastructure during the last three decades have enabled rapid growth of the Internet, but also created challenges. For example, the rapid evolution of switches, routers, consumer devices, applications, and network management software has affected, and been affected by, the explosion in Internet traffic.
The problem poses a substantive opportunity for infrastructure providers. Hardware manufacturers that improve network management and deployment – whether through improved traffic management tools, managed services, or performance-based equipment business models that shift from the “pay-by-the-box” mentality to a more flexible “pay-by-the-megabyte” mentality – are in a good position to help solve the traffic problem profitably. Likewise, tool vendors with the right analytical capabilities, like deep packet inspection – which enables advanced network management, user service, data-mining, and security functions – can expand their customer base beyond network operations by refocusing their capabilities to generate even more valuable insights for marketing and product development functions.
Whether or not net neutrality principles become Federal Communications Commission policy, service providers and their infrastructure suppliers alike must take charge of the network traffic management challenge. With consumer demand increasing by the day, and broadband industry revenue growth slowing in most developed markets, those companies that succeed in turning the adversity of network congestion into profitable opportunities will succeed in the marketplace.
Dan Hays (dhays@prtm.com) is a director in the services, electronics, and software business group at PRTM.