The recent net neutrality debate at the Federal Communications Commission has revealed a variety of sentiments over to what extent the Internet should be regulated. Some have discussed growing Internet traffic and how to manage it. Some believe that imposing price controls is the best course. Less attention, however, is given to technological solutions that can both improve user experience and increase the amount of traffic delivered on existing networks.
Octoshape, the company I work for, specializes in delivering audio and video over broadband networks in the most efficient way possible. As video becomes the most common form of Internet traffic, firms like ours work to ensure that networks can deliver video faster and more efficiently.
Every year, Internet users require more bandwidth as digital video makes up an increasing portion of online traffic. For instance, Netflix is responsible for the consumption of one-third of all Internet traffic on any given night. What’s more, according to a Cisco report, video will take up an eye-popping 79% of Internet bandwidth by 2018. Keeping this system running efficiently will require innovative efforts by companies as well as the government agencies tasked with overseeing this ecosystem that is growing exponentially each day. From our perspective, we see this as the tipping point of a transition from broadcast TV to broadband TV, where the Internet becomes the dominant vector for distributing and consuming video content.
We find ourselves standing at the precipice of paradigm shift not unlike the shift from music CDs to the consumption of digital music using MP3s and iTunes. Today, creative experimentation is required for business to evolve and break through its current natural boundaries defined by underlying technology and infrastructure. Now more than ever, a technological breakthrough can create and serve previously unknown or unmet consumer demands. In some cases, public policies helped create these flourishing environments, usually in the infancy of an infrastructure deployment. More often, however, legislation cannot keep pace with technology advancement, and produces a chilling effect on investment and innovation as a market matures.
That is why any update to the Telecommunications Act of 1996, on which the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee has already begun work, must allow consumers and businesses to guide the next generation of Internet technologies. Since history has shown us that technology evolves much more quickly than laws or regulations can keep up, it is vital that a new law enshrine consumer welfare, innovation, and investment as its cornerstone. Overly prescriptive rules would have the opposite effect by favoring government’s heavy hand over the nimble influence of consumer demands and industry evolution.
Octoshape recognizes that the industry of communication has and will continue to experience exponential change. These advancements can be so dramatic that they fundamentally change operational economics, consumer behavior, and business strategy in ways that could not be foreseen even from the most recent amendments to the Communications Act.
We recognize that policymakers pursued the right approach years ago by maintaining a careful regulatory balance needed to spur infrastructure investment and to protect against monopolistic or consumer predatory pricing behavior. In the drive toward the next evolution of the ecosystem, Octoshape believes policymakers should adopt a similar regulatory posture with fewer regulatory hurdles on this dynamic marketplace which will be crucial to promoting investment and thus further innovation.
As the Energy and Commerce Committee moves forward on this much needed update of the Communications Act, we urge them to keep in mind that consumers – the true beneficiaries of this innovation – crave the limitless possibilities of innovation, not the narrow confines of government intervention.
