Because of the powerful position of the USA in global affairs this parochial issue, which in fact only relates to the USA, has unfortunately now become a global issue, since it is difficult for America to accept that their regulatory situation is out of step with the rest of the world. With all of the major OTT players being in the USA, all of those companies now have a tainted view of the subject – hence their militant stand on the regulatory situation in bodies such as the ITU.
In BuddeComm’s opinion the intertwined and complex situation of OTT regulations, net neutrality (NN) and internet governance should first be analysed and split into the different elements; each of which will require its own unique approach to the problem, as well as its own unique solutions. For example, the NN issue should be split (as the rest of the world is already doing) into a telecom element, being access and interconnect, into infrastructure, and into another element, internet content.
With the FCC ruling on NN, the question will be how they will be regulating this service. For example, services can’t be offered on a discriminatory price basis nor can the telcos favour themselves. Also it looks like there is an incentive for these operators to not invest in their infrastructure unless they can charge for premium services, as the FCC has indicated that the operators can only charge if their infrastructure can’t handle those OTT services.
At a higher level however, in order for this to work properly the FCC will have to split interconnection from internet services, early comments from the Chairman of the FCC, clearly shows that he is aware of this situation but the question is will he do something about this?
Once an open and competitive infrastructure wholesale environment is available there should be no reason for telcos to negotiate commercial arrangements for extra services.