Introducing Network Service Tiers

This is in fact the "original" case of net neutrality. Recently, the discussion was mostly about your ISP charging - either you or some site - to prioritize certain content, like streaming.

But in this context, it is about the providers of the "backbone" of the internet providing the same service to everybody. Usually, different companies and organisations had their public nets, and they allowed each others data to flow through their nets. They made so called "peering" agreements which are a bit intransparent, ISPs have to pay certain amounts depending on the traffic they cause. Then there are private connections that institutions use for themselves.

This is Google renting out their "private" net. What is different is that before, not many organisations had so massive private nets, and while you could buy traffic on them, this was something typically large organisations and companies negotiated (I know certain research institutes pay to have their data routed over a "direct cable" instead of over the regular network). Now, everybody can do so, and choose to pay for the faster route.

What they could have done instead would have been to sign peering agreements and add their connections to the "public" net.

Now, is this illegal or immoral? Well, they certainly have the right to rent out their private net. People have been doing that before. But I think net neutrality is not a binary question, but a continuum. If being able to afford a faster route means your site is faster, that violates net neutrality IMO.

The reason, is that bandwidth is a solid profit center for the cloud majors. Amazon initiated it, the rest are going along in cartel fashion, nobody wants to disrupt one of the lucrative angles by driving that profit center toward zero.

There's no other rational explanation why Azure or Google aren't hammering AWS on bandwidth cost as a competitive angle. They're basically conspiring in the industrial sense, no different than airlines that somehow magically agree to simultaneously raise prices or department stores that for decades all agreed not to discount the perfume etc. box section of their stores.

It's kind of interesting that after being so against preferred networking via their net neutrality stance, they basically implemented it.

Since nobody has so far managed to hit the target:

This is Google acting as your network provider. You first choose Google, and then take your pick amongst their offerings. It's pretty much the same situation as it has always been for residential ISPs, where you have always had providers offering tiers at various speed/price points.

Net neutrality becomes relevant when you don't have a say in the choice of network. Practically, this will usually mean your audience's ISPs (called a "broadband provider" in that order). You get your servers set up at AWS, or GCE, or Linode or wherever you like the terms. But then, no matter what, you get an e-mail from some residential ISP in Florida, telling you that it'll cost you XX$ if you want to stream to your customers on their network at 1080p.

The problem is pretty obvious: the consumer choosing the ISP is not going to take your welfare into consideration, especially if your company doesn't even exist yet. The ISP won't be able to squeeze google, facebook, or amazon. But anything not used by 50%+ of the population simply has no power in these negotiations.

The result will be ISPs capturing almost every last cent you can earn amongst their customer base. If your service competes with any existing offering by either the ISP or a company with deeper pockets than yours, you will never have a chance to compete on quality.

Oh, and you won't just get an email from that ISP in Florida. You'll get an email from every single ISP in the world. Part of the startup decision making process will be like MadTV (if anybody remembers): should we invest these $2,000,000 into our product, or is it better spent on getting access to the markets in Iowa and eastern Michigan? Should we continue haemorrhaging money in southern Europe, or is time to cut our losses and go dark on that continent?

I find that very hard to believe, especially has a public company. Do you have a link?