No Video For You! on Amtrak
Jon and I are trekking to New York for the Digital Hollywood Media Summit and were excited to test out the new Amtrak Connect wi-fi service. Amtrak Connect promises free wi-fi, but with a catch.
AmtrakConnect is a shared Internet connection that works best when browsing basic Internet content or reading your email. We ask that you refrain from playing streaming video or downloading large files. Amtrak may restrict access to some websites or restrict individual customers from using high levels of bandwidth.
It’s not really a matter of just asking you not to do it, though. Amtrak is actively blocking downloads and video streams – going so far as to prevent YouTube embeds in pages you load, and redirecting links to downloads.
A lot of people like to claim ISPs are only interested in network management as a pretense for preventing competition with their video offering. Yet here is a perfect example of a privately owned network choosing to manage congestion by limiting downloads and video – absent any competing video service.
ISPs in the past have noted that universities provide no video service, yet routinely block P2P traffic in the same way.
Since Karl Bode, Free Press, and countless others offer limited evidence as definitive proof of their worldview, I will simply declare their arguments about competition to be permanently rebuked.
“A lot of people like to claim ISPs are only interested in network management as a pretense for preventing competition with their video offering.”
That’s a straw man argument. Many people argue that network management has the potential to be used as an anti-competitive weapon. Nobody who understands the issues has ever argued that carriers are ONLY interested in network management for this purpose. Network management has a multitude of legitimate purposes.
“Since Karl Bode, Free Press, and countless others offer limited evidence as definitive proof of their worldview, I will simply declare their arguments about competition to be permanently rebuked.”
I can’t speak for the “countless” others on your list, but I’ve spent ten years offering evidence across hundreds of subjects highlighting the very real problems limited competition has on the U.S. broadband sector and the American consumer. Feel free to dispute specific instances of weak evidence on a case by case basis.
However, if your gold standard for “evidence” is using an Amtrak brochure to “prove” that the U.S. broadband sector is competitive, then know I may not bother to respond. :)
My most favorite recent evidence was the 100 million people vs. homes article. I’m just sayin’…
Karl –
If I read your argument correctly, this post by Marvin Ammori at Free Press is simply a straw man and he doesn’t understand the issues. Is that correct?
In their white paper on the topic, Free Press goes so far as to call BitTorrent the future of high quality video delivery.
Never mind the studies that have found 99% of such traffic is pirated material.
What about this one from Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOm. It spends a lot of time making the competition argument. Is it a straw man? Does she not understand the issues?
The fact is this is a regular refrain from the net neutrality camp, and it doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. I’ll assume from your post that you don’t believe any of them understand the issues.
On that, we agree.
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