If you are not familiar with Net Neutrality, you need to be. This is one of the biggest and potentially destructive political footballs to affect telecom and more specifically VoIP since the Carterfone decision of 1968.
Click Here The FCC has stated that "it's no big deal" but the ISPs all have very deep pockets and litigation will prove to be the downfall to Net Neutrality.
Rcaman
Here's an update:
Click Here The vote is scheduled for February 26. If you are a VOIP provider, you should be interested in this.
Rcaman
Rcaman just curious of your thoughts on how net Neutrality would affect telecom ?
I have not followed the topic to closely so im in no position to comment but my initial thoughts are that open net neutrality where ISPs cant regulate data packets no matter what the content would be bad for our industry
Let's say you sell "Cloud" based service and are getting a nice residual monthly income right now. IF the game changes with Net Neutrality as Verizon, Comcast, AT&T and any other big ISP players want, the USAGE will be metered. So, let's say, just as a simple example, the current usage is 100 Gb per month and, right now, that's not metered, and the big guys get their way and the usage is metered, they could impose a flat rate for, let's say 25 Gb per month and you pay extra for each Gb over 100 Gb. Your "Cloud" provider is not going to absorb the increase, so it's either higher rates to the end user or a reduction in your commission. Further, the ISP can charge higher "premium" fees for internet access to those using more bandwidth.
What is even more troublesome is that the big guys want to throttle back the speed for usage that is not provided by them or for content that does not have a reciprocal agreement with them paying them "rent" each month for the use of their services. What that means, the nice 50/50 Mbs speed which makes everything work so well could be cut back to 5/5 Mbs just because your "Cloud" provider does not have a working agreement with the ISP.
Now, the internet is slow and you now have, at times, voice calls that sound terrible and, may even be unusable. Your client is screaming for a fix and you nor your "Cloud" provider has none. Now what?
Further on, it may become an ISP "Cloud" service, much like Centrex or other telephone company based service. You may have an opportunity to be an agent and receive some meager stipend from the providers, but, as the "greed-0-meter" suggests, they will hog it all and leave "resellers" out in the cold.
This entire issue is incredibly important to all of us and, my guess is, only a handful even know what Net Neutrality is. Soon, we may all "know" what it is the hard way. Putting one's head in the sand is not a reasonable way to protect one's self.
Rcaman
We will soon see. All the people that think their SIP lines were free are in for a rude awakening and will level the playing field.
That is certainly part of it. My fear is that, unless you purchase a "premium" services package or purchase only their services, the big providers will slow the service down, so much, that VoIP will be useless. They will get away with it because they do "offer" an alternative.
Rcaman
any new thoughts ?
I know the last couple years with "Net Neutrality" hasn't done anything to increase business.