Digicel sees the repeal of net neutrality in the US as a \u201cvictory for telecoms, consumers and economies\u201d, and is encouraging Caribbean countries to do the same. But will our countries truly benefit if we dismantle net neutrality rules in the region?<\/em><\/p>\n
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Globally, Internet (net) neutrality still remains a highly contentious issue, which still has not been conclusively settled. Most recently, we discussed the intended roll back of the net neutrality rules by then incoming Chairman of the Federal Communication Commission<\/a>, which is still being hotly debated in the United States (US). As at the time of writing, based on the widespread opposition the proposal is receiving, there is a possibility that the dismantling of the current net neutrality framework in the US might not come to pass.<\/p>\n
Regional telecoms carrier, Digicel, has been a vocal supporter of the roll back of net neutrality rules<\/a>, and over the past several months have been emphasising its position to anyone who will listen. Further, in support of the FCC\u2019s plans to repeal net neutrality, which was published last week, Digicel again was in the news<\/a> supporting the move:<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s biggest contention is that the current net neutrality rules appear to favour \u201cthe <\/em>interests of the large Internet companies like Google and Facebook (who notably invest no money in infrastructure) while stifling innovation and seriously hampering the telecoms companies who provide and pay for the Internet networks<\/em>\u201d (Source: Digicel<\/a>). It thus wants the power not treat all Internet traffic the same. As a result, some content providers, such as Facebook and Google, could pay (more), or could otherwise be hindered in accessing Digicel\u2019s customer base, and so open up new revenue streams for the company, especially since profits from traditional sources are not as robust as they used to be, and the it has some massive debts that must be serviced<\/a>.<\/p>\n
We know Digicel\u2019s position, but what issues we should be considering?<\/h3>\n
Although Digicel has been calling out Caribbean regulators to abolish their current posture supporting net neutrality, which would better allow the firm to \u201ccontinue to invest with certainty in our networks<\/em>\u201d (Source: Digicel<\/a>), there is a bigger picture \u2013 and a broad range of issues \u2013 that ought to be highlighted and considered.<\/p>\n
First, the argument that Digicel, and even the FCC Chairman have been making, that net neutrality has been hindering investment, has not been the case in practice. In the US, infrastructure investment has been on the rise since 2015, since the current net neutrality framework was introduced (Source:\u00a0 Business Insider<\/a>). Furthermore, companies, such as AT&T, Comcast, Verizon \u00a0and Altice, to name a few, are on the record stating that the more stringent net neutrality rules have not affected their investment strategies (Source: Ars Technica<\/a>).<\/p>\n
Third, it is important for us to contextualise our own significance in the grand scheme of things. Based on 2016 estimates, there are about 20\u00a0million Internet users in the Caribbean region, with the highest number of users in the Dominican Republic, at over 6\u00a0million (Source:\u00a0 Internet World Stats<\/a>). Although 6 million (or 20 million, regionally) is not necessarily a customer base to be overlooked, we ought to appreciate that Caribbean telcos may not be able to successfully leverage access their customer base against global content providers without consequence. If a firm, such as Google, walked away from accessing over a billion people in China, it may lose little sleep over our paltry market size in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n
Image credit: \u00a0 mdavidford<\/a> (flickr)<\/em><\/p>\n
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