How Korean (and other) blocking of VoIP shows why we need Net Neutrality
Source: www.voip-news.com
After a slightly snarky comment to our previous blog post about the ongoing Korean VoIP blocking scandal, I put in some serious thought about how ironic it is that a very pro-military segment of our representatives could take a stance on Net Neutrality that is already playing out to hurt the ordinary working military men and women who these same representatives support so publicly.
Here’s how it works.
Korea has a very advanced broadband infrastructure - produced with a huge amount of government intervention in order to develop and promote advanced technologies that Korea can export to the world (and as a source of national pride). That infrastructure is operated on a model very similar to that in the US - which is to say that access to the network is controlled by a few semi-monopolistic service provider giants. So far very similar to the US with the exception that our broadband network is slower and less pervasive than Korea’s.
Next, we find out that KOREAN service providers have been proposing to block free or overseas VoIP services across the Korean network - because they (to paraphrase) are interfering with the provider’s serious business and paid traffic by using up bandwidth that should be paid for. In other words, there are different classes of broadband user according to these companies. Sound familiar?
Turns out that means that US military personnel were going to be blocked as well. Why aren’t they being? Because the US government stepped in and brokered a temporary deal to leave service on. But it isn’t a permanent solution. So, we have the very thing Net Neutrality opponents are screaming is unecessary - government intervention.
The parallels are obvious. And what worked in practice? Are our representatives paying attention or are they solely focussed a little further North?
Time to get educated and involved.
Technorati Tags: net neutrality, voip
