This week’s decision by  a federal appeals court that said that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has no power to regulate how large internet service providers manage networks has got me rethinking my opinion about net neutrality.

Net neutrality is the concept that says all traffic should move across the internet at the same speed and that those who actually own the networks (the large telcom companies in most cases)  should not be able to favor one sort of traffic over another .  The internet service providers in this case (AT&T and Comcast) argued that they should be able to slow down the movement of large files when network speed was impeded.  The court agreed with them, essentially telling the FCC that it had no power to regulate the internet.

Now,  I’m no fan of large telecom companies (particularly AT&T) but I have to admit that their argument resonates with me.  Those who argued (unsuccessfully) that the federal government should exercise control over data movement are ignoring a long standing precedent related to one of the most highly regulated infrastructures in the country.

I’m talking about highways.

I used to own a fleet of trucks and once a year I dutifully wrote a really big check to register my vehicles with the state dept. of transportation.  The cost of registering each vehicle was based on its weight, the theory being “the bigger the truck the more wear and tear there is to highways and bridges”.  I paid another tax every time I bought fuel-larger trucks burned more diesel fuel and thus paid more of a tax called “highway use”.

The FCC’s argument seemed to say that the telecoms should not be able to do something that federal and state government had been doing for decades.

It would seem that this argument deserves consideration in the net neutrality discussion.  The government does not actually own the internet infrastructure, but the argument still is relevant.  Those who make the most of the internet-transferring the largest files and the most data-would be charged the most.

The owners of the internet infrastructure don’t want to regulate what is actually being transmitted.  What they really want to be able to do is charge more to those who use their infrastructure the most.

It’s an argument worth considering.

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One of my favorite Bible stories is The Tower of Babel, where God comes down to the people of Babylon who have built a great tower and causes them to no longer be able to understand what they are saying to each other because he is displeased with their disobedience.  It is a parable about why we have so many languages and how God punished the citizens of Babylon for trying to build a tower that would “reach up to heaven”.

I reference this story as an introduction to one of the most vexing, but easily solvable problems I face every day.  We make an effort to make sure customers and reach us on the phone, even though we are a web based business, and we usually prefer to conduct transactions online.  Still, we’ve had the same toll free phone number for 25 years and try to insure that it is answered by the third ring.

More and more, the caller on the other end of the line is a non-native English speaker and this usually means trouble.  We deal in some fairly technical issues (product specs, tracking info, etc.) and language barriers can be a real problem.  We’re a small business and, do date, no one in our shop is fluent in any other languages.  Sometimes the confusion is humorous, but usually it is just frustrating-on both ends of the line.

In just about every case the problem, or inquiry, could be much more easily resolved if the customer would go to the web rather than the phone.  In most cases, the answer to their question is readily available on one of our thousands of web pages.  If not, our email address and contact form are easy to find.

Best of all, new translation software from Google means that the inquiry doesn’t even need to be posted in English. An inquiry in Spanish about a “micrófono se encuentra” can quickly be translated to “microphone stand” and a term like UPS tracking number becomes “Número de rastreo de UPS” with a couple of key strokes.  It’s almost like having an international customer service department.

We’ll continue to prominently publish our toll free phone numbers and cheerfully answer the phone, but if you want the best customer service we can offer, then you’ll be happiest by sticking to the web.

GoodBuyGuys.com is your online source for Permacel gaffers tape,Duracell Procell batteries,  Nashua duct tape, Bay State wire ties, Hosa and Entertainment One extension cords and OnStage Stand mic stands.  Tell us how you use online translation services.