Congressman Eric Massa (D-NY) is sponsoring a bill that is being discussed in the press as providing the Federal Trade Commission with "veto" rights on ISP bandwidth caps. I theory, this sounds great... but as is so often the case, reality is a bit more complex.

 

The bill doesn't just restrict bandwidth caps-- it basically puts ISPs at the same level of regulation as public utilities and telephone companies. To some degree, this is warranted-- Internet connectivity has become an essential service. However, I wonder how much this would constrain innovation in the space, and I'm concerned that bandwidth caps would just be replaced with pay-as-you-go metered access that would severely cramp the development of cloud-based technologies that are predecated on unmetered access.

 

I need to review the bill in more detail before I form my opinion-- but I will post my evaluation here when I do (likely this weekend.)