"Net neutrality" will be settled in February, with operators and interconnected

The Washington Post reported that Tom Wheeler, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), hopes to be able to vote on a new network neutrality proposal by February this year. Wheeler plans to pick up an "upgraded" open Internet regulation from within and try to get it approved at its February 26 meeting.

Wheeler's first proposal, which allowed Internet service providers to provide preferential access to services, did not pass smoothly. By the end of 2014, President Barack Obama had tried to come up with a tougher solution-putting broadband in the category II (Title II) service, like the telephone network.

In the United States under the current Telecommunications Law framework, the FCC to the telecommunications business is divided into two categories, the first category of business (title IService) for the unregulated category, the second type of business (title II service), referring to the public utility for "Common Carrier" control. In 2002, FCC will cable broadband, in 2005, Telecom Broadband, in 2007, the division of wireless communications into a "first class business." Therefore, if the FCC is to implement strict network neutrality regulation, the Internet broadband access business, which has already been classified as the first type of business, is to be reclassified as "Type II"; If the FCC does not change the nature of the "first category of business" of broadband, it will weaken the regulatory intensity of net neutrality. In this way, the network neutrality problem is transformed into a business category problem.

Network neutrality is also known as Internet neutrality. It is a principle that requires Internet service providers and governments to be equal and non-discriminatory in their treatment of all internet data. The theme of "network Neutrality" is "whether to allow network operators to prioritize and pay extra (QoS) for internet company traffic."

Earlier, internet companies, such as Google and Microsoft, believed that all information should be treated equally and that network neutrality could provide better services for consumers. And the network operators, such as Verizon and At&t, believe that they have spent a lot of human, material and financial resources to build Internet infrastructure, but the costs and benefits are not proportional.

The contradiction between network operators and Internet companies is becoming more and more obvious.

On the one hand, internet companies are constantly extending to the network operator's sphere of influence. such as micro-letters and the introduction of micro-letter phone book. When the operator's voice and SMS business by micro-letter and other OTT (through the Internet to provide users with a variety of application services) grab food, the industry has been rumored that operators to OTT business charges. Finally, the Ministry of Industry put words, "put the market to the market." Speaking on his views on micro-credit, former China Mobile chairman Mr Wang said

Micro-letters to operators to bring huge traffic, however, operators of the network investment cost is much greater than the flow of revenue.

In this respect, MA's response is that the micro-letter to the operators of the data flow is huge, and the operator's current statistics are incomplete, many of the traffic brought by the chain is not statistically.

Micro-letters to operators to bring more traffic than resource consumption.

Foreign internet giants like Google and operators are more directly competing. July 2012, Google launched its own fiber-optic broadband network Google Fiber, the Internet directly to the telecommunications industry to invade. It is said to provide a high-speed network of 100 times times faster than traditional broadband, which will reach 1000Mbps. April 2013, Google Fbier covered City Kansas, Austin, Provo. In February 2014, Google announced the expansion of Google's fbier coverage from 3 cities in 2013 to 34. Google's move apparently panicked the traditional American network operator, and shortly after Google announced its expansion, At&t announced that it would provide ultra-high-speed internet services for more than 100 candidate cities.

Some analysts believe that the Internet Access Service industry does not fit its inherent advantages, Google may be hurt in profits, it must also face the industry's veteran players in the competition, such as AT&T or Time Warner Cable television Group. However, the addition of Google Fiber at least makes the telecoms industry more competitive, and if the new network neutrality of Google Fiber into the second category (Title II) service management, it will also be more equal with the traditional operators of competitive conditions.

While Google Fiber is still bucket than mainstream network providers in its coverage, Google is actively preparing to enter the virtual operator market while paving its fibre-optic broadband network. It is said that since the beginning of 2013, Google has contacted Sprint and Verizon, expressed this intention and explored the possibility.

Similar trends can be seen at home. At the end of 2013, the first pilot license of virtual operators was issued, in just over a year, 42 private enterprises, from retail, communications and the Internet and many other industries, access to virtual operators "tickets." Millet, Jingdong and Alibaba currently have access to virtual operator licences and mobile business resale licenses, 360 and Baidu have no license, but separately invested in the licensing of Di and share communications. But the difference is that the domestic internet giants are still not moving. Maybe it's like the calm before the storm.

On the other hand, we see that, in order to compete with internet companies, traditional operators are also trying to increase their internet genes in addition to improving speed. China Mobile has recently set up a center-shift online Service Co., Ltd. to open core competencies for partners, including Internet public opinion monitoring, cloud customer service, real-name centralized support services, call services and telemarketing services.
Xi, chairman of China Mobile, said at the 2014 China Mobile Global Partners Conference

The development of communication industry should go through three processes: voice curve, Flow curve, digitized service curve.

After the third curve, I'm afraid the operator is not a carrier but a new internet company. The final verdict of the "net neutrality" case can determine how fast the curve goes.