This does not have much to with VoIP (post specific, not to the topic), but I read this interesting article by Brian White a few days ago and got to thinking that with all of the hub-ub about ‘Net Neutrality’ and ISP’s wanting to charge content providers for “higher levels of service” and giving non-paying content providers a lower level of service that the idea of Google as an Internet/VoIP service provider is not that far fetched.
If Google, or any content provider for that matter, thought that this legislation had a good chance of passing it would be in their best interest to consider becoming an ISP. A simple (well not so simple) cost analysis of becoming an Internet Service Provider, revenue growth possibilities, and considerations of the pros/cons of doing so weighed against the cost of additional fees should the bill pass might, for a site that recieves the third most traffic on the Internet, prove that to be a great move. Considering many of Google’s moves in the service realm through GoogleTalk and GoogleFi, it makes me think that sooner or later Google as the Internet (thanks Business 2.0) truly is a possibilty.
What do you think?
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Net neutrality is important for voip application providers. If network owners, ie the people who own the stuff in the ground are allowed to introduce jitter, block ports etc based on applications, this is going to kill the independent voip providers. Of course you will always be up against the brand awarness of the network owner, ie BT, AT&T etc, but if they are allowed to make their own apps work on the network better than external providers, the world of competition in the voip space is dead.
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