^{Democracy & Technology Blog} Cringely…so close, but so far

Rich Karlgaard at his great Digital Rules blog refers to Robert Cringely’s new column.
How can an article make so much and so little sense at the same time? Cringely correctly identifies big bandwidth as a replacement for Quality of Service (QoS). Big bandwidth will indeed render moot most of the “blocking” and “degradation” fears of the content companies. Congress, furthermore, should refrain from imposing new rules in a dynamic realm it knows little about. Yes, yes, yes. He must be lurking here at disco-tech.
But then Cringely gets mixed up and implies the bandwidth providers (cablecos and telcos) are the ones asking for special new rules. Exactly wrong. It’s the content companies asking Congress to impose a massive new regulatory regime on the Internet, which could make the disastrous ’96 Act look tame by contrast.
-Bret Swanson