Net Neutrality is no longer the issue. Let’s talk about Community Broadband.
Like most of you, I’ve been an avid supporter of Net Neutrality. So when former Verizon exec and current FCC Chairman Ajit Pai successfully overturned Net Neutrality, I was frustrated. No matter what polls you read, it’s clear that the vast majority of Americans who are educated about Net Neutrality are in favor of it. This was the work of lobbyists.
Despite Big Telecom’s success in overturning Net Neutrality, I believe their efforts will backfire in the long run. Republican lawmakers who supported overturning the law claim that Net Neutrality “hurts broadband innovation.” But by any reasonable standard, Comcast, Time Warner and the legion of other Internet Service Providers out there suck at innovation. And why wouldn’t they? Big Telecom seeks to monopolize the last mile of Internet Access, delivering increasingly sub-standard technology and terrible customer service. Overturning Net Neutrality won’t change this. But It will lead to higher fees, and higher fees that will only further stimulate demand for unfettered Internet access.
The technology to usher in the end of Big Telecom’s Internet monopoly exists, but it will require a critical mass to mobilize and make it a reality. Do you remember that Silicon Valley episode where Pied Piper-founder-turned-Verizon spokesperson Richard Hendricks realizes that he can power his data processing business by hacking into people’s mobile phones at Hooli-con? The Pied Piper team, in a last-ditch effort to reduce their skyrocketing hosting costs, hacks into thousands of phones to turn them into an unwitting cloud-based network. Malware aside, the point is that connecting our devices can create a powerful, bottom-up network. If enough of us band together, this network could eliminate the need for Big Telecom altogether. It’s called Community Broadband, and it’s what we should be working toward in a post Net Neutrality era.
In 2014 I saw Bob Frankston, an early pioneer of the free and open Internet, speak at a Betaworks event in New York. Frankston proposed a blueprint for a bottom-up approach to Internet Access [Either capitalize “internet access” or don’t but be consistent.] His insight was simple: instead of connecting our routers and devices to a cable or 4G signal provided by Big Telecom, we should connect them to one another wirelessly. This creates a network that grows more powerful as more people connect to it. By integrating Community Broadband networks directly with the fiber-optic infrastructure that connects the world’s major cities, we can end the last mile monopoly that enables Big Telecom to exist.
A lot of work and cooperation is needed to make Community Broadband a reality. There are privacy questions that need to be addressed. And it will require a significant and geographically-focused effort to build a case study around it. But unlike Public Broadband, which advocates for government administered broadband networks, Community Broadband doesn’t rely on the government to do anything.
Big Telecom has kicked a hornet’s nest by overturning Net Neutrality, and their actions will only further increase public demand for a free and open Internet. Can we channel our collective frustration to replace Big Telecom with something better?
