A False All Clear Conclusion from the Chicago Tribune

Like their south side University of Chicago economists, the Editorial Board of the Tribune waxes poetic and snarky about the virtues of the marketplace and how it can solve any and all network neutrality ills. The Editorial Board dismisses a particularly egregious throttling episode as “humiliating customer service failure” for Verizon when the company’s software automatically slowed transmission speeds of California first responder handsets as they tackled life and property threatening fires.  Does deliberate slowing down of transmission speed and commensurate service degradation warrant an all clear, A-OK seal of approval, because the tactic gets obliquely identified as a possible consequence of bandwidth hogging? How many service providers can get away with offering poor service as leverage for upselling? The Editorial Board is woefully naive to think that a rising tide of innovation and market driven pricing can solve quality of service problems.

[Rob Frieden, Pioneers Chair and Professor of Telecommunications and Law, Penn State University]