by Nico McLane & A.M. Arno
October 6, 2009

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How should Net Neutrality affect the mobile Internet? It really is quite simple: the same way NetNeutrality effects the real internet. Why should there be a difference between the "mobile" internet and the "real" internet? There is only one internet, and it should not matter how you access content on it of whether it's via a smartphone, netbook, or your tv's set-top box. These are all IP-based communications over the same internet we all know and love today.

Watching live shows in real time requires real streaming over the real internet, mobile or otherwise. Cable companies have made some provisions toward handing over access to subscribers, and more options are available as to how subscribers are able to watch what they watch, but the industries are taking baby steps. Nico loves her new Palm Pre on Sprint Nextel; the live streaming experience may not be 100% at all times, but the seeds have been sown, and because we have access to the network and the devices are not locked down, we as an industry can work together to make the experience better.

Nico notes: "After spending a lot of time thinking about how I want to experience mobile to set top box to notebook programming, I think that Sprint, with their live Sprint TV already off the ground should partner with TiVo to develop the ultimate semantic, take-me -with-you programming experience—they share a similar corporate culture and the more I think about it, the more I realize what a wonderful partnership that would be!"

Verizon's FiOS TV offers limited access to a some user-generated web sites, and Comcast and Time Warner Cable are rolling out services that let subscribers stream cable channels to their PCs, but we are still in the proverbial "lab" of life trying to figure this all out! What do you think?

Time Warner Cable asked the FCC to lay off the Net Neutrality conversation, stating "Now is not the time to engage in a debate about the need for net neutrality obligations." But if we don't start out with equal and open access, how would we go backwards?

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And that's it for this week's Bandwdith Bastards conversation. Here are a few links to resources you can use to educate yourself and your friends about Net Neutrality and the steps the FCC is taking to address the perceived barriers to accessibility and affordability to broadband, and a whole lot more! As we always say, if you stream media but no one can watch it, is it really streaming?

http://www.fcc.gov/broadband/ http://www.broadband.gov/ http://www.google.com/help/netneutrality.html http://www.publicknowledge.org/node/2668