PajamasMedia's fact-checking leaves a little something to be desired

PajamasMedia is an interesting metablog for the most part, but it really ought to steer clear of non-political issues like religion and technology. Especially technology. I don't know if it's just that they link to things that might interest their readers, even if inaccurate, or if they are trying to put an additional stamp of accuracy on them, but they have gotten the network neutrality issue framed completely wrong at least twice now. First time, second time.
Here's a brief summary of what network neutrality is about, in a few concise bulleted points:

1. The companies that sell bandwidth to businesses and broadband Internet access to home users want to impose arbitrary tolls on their services. Google, for example would have to pay their bandwidth seller say... $50,000 for a 100mbps line each month (arbitrary figure, but let's go with it since they're paying fair market value) and THEN would have to pay every ISP for the "privilege" of sending data to the ISP's customers at full speed.
2. The content companies, such as Google, in retaliation want to be able to force a complete equality of bandwidth to all services. This would make it very technically difficult to supply bandwidth to services that might compete agains their offerings. It's actually not fair when you consider bullet 1 in light of bullet 3
3. The reason that the ISPs and bandwidth sellers want to hit these companies on every end possible is that you, as a home broadband user, are technically a free-rider. Here's the math. A $15 DSL line is 50% the speed of a T1 line, which costs a few hundred dollars per month, and is the sort of line that would provide dedicated support to broadband services. Same rule for cable. In other words, unlimited, cheap broadband Internet access is what created this mess in the first place.
4. Solution: metered bandwidth. We don't have $25/month unlimited electricity, so why not apply that to Internet access? It costs money not democracy brownie points to keep the Internet going. Bandwidth, like electricity, is a limited resource in the sense that there are limits to how much can be used. If you want more bandwidth, you have to expand the network. Expanding the network takes money. ISPs are not making money off of your $15-$25/month broadband. Take this to its natural conclusion.

Now, I guess for an even simpler summary. Your broadband bill barely covers their bills. So, in turn, they have gone after those with deeper pockets and an inability to not pay their demands. If people paid for the bandwidth that they use on the home side, ISPs would neither have an excuse nor a reason to pursue this. Metered bandwidth is your modem/router's friend. It keeps you from subsidizing the bandwidth use of the punk kid or rich cheapskate who uses 600GB/month in file sharing activities while you use barely a few GB for your own uses. The End.

Update: third time is a charm.

Technorati tags: Network Neutrality, blogosphere, fact, check, PajamasMedia.