PREOCCUPATION

I talk about net neutrality a lot, but I admit that it is a loaded phrase, and mentioning it makes me feel like a dirty socialist. ‘Preoccupation’ is given by dictionary.com as a synonym for ‘neutrality’ under the entry ‘indifference’, and it just works on so many levels in this context.

From Business Week: Is Verizon a Network Hog?

Documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission show that Verizon Communications is setting aside a wide lane on its fiber-optic network for delivering its own television service. According to Marvin Sirbu, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who examined the documents, more than 80% of Verizon’s current capacity is earmarked for carrying its service, while all other traffic jostles in the remainder.

PAYING FOR PRIORITY. Leading Net companies say that Verizon’s actions could keep some rivals off the road. As consumers try to search Google, buy books on Amazon.com, or watch videos on Yahoo!, they’ll all be trying to squeeze into the leftover lanes on Verizon’s network. On Feb. 7 the Net companies plan to take their complaints about Verizon’s plans to the Senate during a hearing on telecom reform. “The Bells have designed a broadband system that squeezes out the public Internet in favor of services or content they want to provide,” says Paul Misener, vice-president for global policy at Amazon.com.

The point, as BlackFriars notes, is that Verizon is trying to artificially limit bandwidth to create bottlenecks that will justify introducing their long-planned tiered service. However, as Ars technica reports, this might not change service much at all.

We contacted Dr. Marvin Sirbu, Professor of Engineering and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University and an FTTP expert to see how the numbers really add up. In short, there’s almost no cause for concern that Verizon’s own traffic will relegate other services to the dark alleys of the Fios network. The video is actually being delivered on a separate wavelength from the other services. According to Sirbu, roughly 3.5Gbps of the network’s capacity will be allocated for downstream video. That leaves 620Mbps of bandwidth for ‘Net traffic, which is split up between the 32 users on each Broadband Passive Optical Network node. Once Verizon switches to Gigabit PON, that number will rise to 2.4Gbps. Video on demand will be delivered via IPTV.

Thats a lot of bandwidth, and if Ars is right, many of us will see the fruits of these labors piped directly into our homes. However, this still puts Verizon en route towards a tiered internet, whether it is necessary or not. And considering that we taxpayers subsidized the (rather lame) broadband network underground right now, this upgrade can’t come soon enough.