By Daniel Freedman, Vice President, Operations, iMiller Public Relations
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) didn’t go nearly far enough in its net neutrality decision, according to Gil Santaliz, Founder and Managing Member of the New Jersey Fiber Exchange (NJFX), who spoke at Capacity North America 2015, which took place September 29 through October 1 in Toronto, ON, Canada. After receiving a record 3.7 million public comments, the FCC, in what many telecom industry observers view as landmark decision, voted last February to regulate broadband Internet service as a public utility. The new rules, pillars of the net neutrality concept, ensure that no content is blocked and that the Web will not be divided into pay-to-play fast lanes for Internet and media companies that can afford it and slow lanes for everyone else.
Net neutrality without network neutrality is meaningless, however, Santaliz emphasized during his presentation titled “Net Neutrality: A Question of Business or Principle?” “The focus on fast lanes and slow lanes fails to tell the whole story,” he explained.
“If someone sells dark fiber and also competes against you, they are not net neutral,” said Santaliz. “The whole name of the game should be to not create monopolies, rather than to create rules. But under current FCC rules, net neutrality ends prematurely to the benefit of the big players.”
To illustrate his point, Santaliz showed a slide that depicted an automobile pileup looming on the existing Internet super highway, likening cars, crushed bumper-to-bumper, to data packets. He then called on the FCC to provide leadership in terms of right of way. “Let the market manage itself by allowing others to access end-users. But the solution is not the creation of the equivalent of private aviation for the privileged few to avoid traffic congestion. It’s not about policing the highway, but supporting the growth of additional highways more players and more competition.”
The FCC should concern itself with maintaining a balance of power, Santaliz believes, because the stakes are enormous. Without true net neutrality, elites could charge high prices for a limited selection of products, and safety, security, and freedom would be in peril. The FCC must act to ensure new market entrants have the ability to innovate, Santaliz said.
Gil Santaliz, Founder and Managing Member of NJFX
Santaliz possesses a wealth of experience, past and present, from which to draw upon concerning net neutrality issues. The newly-launched NJFX — the first Tier III carrier-neutral colocation facility that intersects where sub-sea cables from the United States, South America, Europe and the Caribbean meet — provides a new edge that allows carriers and enterprise companies to have more control of their networks, rather than rely on traditional backhaul solutions. With the advent of NJFX’s facility, companies now have the freedom to choose how they interconnect U.S. domestic networks with international Sub-Sea systems.
Previous to NJFX, Santaliz was the CEO, Founder and Managing Member of 4Connections LLC, a metro fiber network provider, which he launched in 2001. Under Mr. Santaliz’s stewardship, 4Connections, a leader in the deployment of carrier-neutral dark fiber services for the New York-New Jersey metro area, frequently faced and successfully navigated New Jersey regulatory issues.
To learn more about NJFX, visit www.njfx.net.
To view entire slideshare presentation, Click here
