Richard Martin Blog: Google’s Inherent Contradiction

With the integration of Google’s Voice application with Gmail, the inherent inconsistency – some would say hypocrisy – of the search giant’s stance on net neutrality (outlined in its controversial joint proposal with Verizon) have become more apparent.

On the one hand, “Google and Verizon want to strip the FCC of substantive enforcement capabilities, reducing the agency to a reports-writer and occasional issuer of fines," reported VON/xchange business and regulatory editor Kelly Teal. Under this scheme, “reasonable network management," which “could include traffic prioritization" – would be acceptable.

On the other hand, by combining the powerful features of Voice with the most popular Web-based e-mail platform, Google is attempting to become a provider of unified communications – in other words, a de facto service provider. If you’re an established service provider – say, a major incumbent carrier in the U.S. whose name starts with “V" – and you’re prioritizing traffic, and a rival operator is offering free or low-cost VoIP calls combined with free e-mail to your customers, chances are you’d place a fairly low priority on that traffic. Unless the rival operator was Google.

Google is betting on its ubiquity, its domination of Web advertising, and its relationships with major carriers (who can afford to slow down Google traffic?) to exempt it from competitive practices that could doom startup providers attempting to provide unified, Web-based communications over the big carriers’ Internet backbones.

Think of the emerging Google-dominated Web backbone as an ecosystem – or better yet, as a virtual government, as Union Square Ventures partner Brad Burnham does in this blog – one that is fundamentally hostile to the growth of rival factions. Google has the market heft to close the door behind it, so to speak, barring the way for competitive service providers to offer Web-based communications without fear of crippling slowdowns caused by “reasonable" network management.

I have always said that, as providers of a scarce resource – network access and bandwidth – carriers should be able to meter the traffic flowing across their networks, charging the heaviest users more. By removing the FCC’s oversight of network management, however, the Google-Verizon proposal would eliminate the safeguards that keep the Internet a free and competitive market.

Here’s hoping the FCC, which seems to abandoned hope of a compromise on these issues, will recognize that in its upcoming meetings on Net neutrality.