TechNet CEOs to Flood Hill on Net Neutrality

“So far we've been outgunned” by cable and telco lobbyists supporting what he called “bit discrimination,” but Doerr, an early Google backer, promised “we can get CEOs to make calls on this” to wavering members of Congress and change the dynamics of the debate. Doerr briefly addressed the issue at an “investment in innovation” lunch sponsored by TechNet Thurs., but told a small crowd afterward: “I have a lot to learn about this.”

Anti-neutrality forces have swamped Congress with a lobbyist for every member to ensure that providers can charge different rates for a bit of IP video and a Web page bit, Doerr said during the lunch. He said Conexant CEO Dwight Decker’s stated vision of cellphone video everywhere would be thwarted by the duopoly of cable and telcos - themselves both duopolies -- in the U.S., putting the country further behind markets that are pushing wireless broadband, like S. Korea. Broadband expansion is one of TechNet’s main areas of advocacy. Startups succeeding those he helped finance are “not going to ever know what net neutrality really was” unless TechNet’s big tent and others push back, Doerr said. He told the crowd after that he was sure the House would reject pro-neutrality amendments Thurs., adding that hope lay in the Senate.

But TechNet’s support for net neutrality appears to fall short of the zeal of its presumed allies in e-commerce. Its statement favors “narrowly tailored legislation to preserve” what has been “the foundation of Internet growth and innovation.” TechNet supports legislative provisions to prevent network operators from discriminating on traffic “based on the source or ownership of Internet content.” Operators should be prevented from “affirmatively blocking, degrading or impairing consumer access” to content and applications they want, and the FCC needs “full authority to address such anticompetitive behavior.” Doerr said after the lunch that the group favors varied pricing for different levels of service, such as bandwidth-heavy IP video: “Any broadband supplier ought to be able to charge for that.” But he called it “tiered pricing,” implying the extra cost should be paid by customers, not websites or providers of applications running on the Internet. A spokesman for Public Knowledge, a leading neutrality advocate, told us TechNet “certainly got the main points right on banning discrimination and prevention of blocking.”

Akamai Exec. Chmn. George Conrades said the votes were coming too early on net neutrality provisions in various bills and he implored Congress to “get it right” first. If dealt with in a nuanced way, legislation will help everyone, he said: “The way it’s being postured today is problematic,” as a duopoly vs. consumers and websites. Services by Web “plumber” Akamai -- as moderator and Time correspondent Karen Tumulty called the company -- have been cited by telcos and cable as evidence that websites have always paid 3rd parties for faster delivery.

Only Bipartisan Issue Has Come to Halt

TechNet’s “innovation” agenda has been embraced by both parties this year (WID March 1 p12, Jan 20 p3), but the momentum behind both efforts has slowed, Decker said. Getting caught up in net neutrality and peripheral social issues, Congress’s dalliance on innovation -- R&D, broadband expansion, and higher education among other priorities -- has created “anxiety” among TechNet member CEOs that even a sure thing can’t pass, he said.

There’s no good excuse for the slow adoption of e- prescribing, Conrades said. Though 93% of pharmacies are certified by e-prescribing network SureScripts, only one in 5 physicians is participating, he said. Pharmaceutical trade associations are encouraging members to take up e-prescribing and insurance companies are subsidizing technology purchases for participating doctors and digitizing their health records, Conrades said. Slow progress on medical privacy is also inexplicable, he said, pointing to more daunting privacy challenges mostly solved by the financial sector. Though President Bush created a commission on electronic health records (EHRs), and legislation doesn’t involve any new funds, “for some reason we just can’t get the legislation passed,” Doerr said. Without a push for EHRs, doctors will continue to make easily avoidable -- and fatal -- mistakes: “It doesn’t have to exist,” Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld said.

Online education is finally making inroads at “traditional” colleges, and “change is coming from the fringes,” Greifeld said. Online-only universities and trade schools used to have a “certain lack of appeal to the mass market” but continued growing, and the trend moved to “regular” schools, he said, citing the success of education hosting firm Blackboard. Elite universities like Harvard have no excuse for sitting out the online trend, he said, citing the social communities on MySpace.com and Facebook.com that replicate campus socializing. The result is that fewer students get the top-notch education they deserve, simply because they can’t all fit in the classroom, he added. It’s not an area for govt. intervention, he cautioned. But Decker responded that govts. need to at least permit competition from “destructive technology,” just as govts. have allowed in charter schools.

The nation’s Internet infrastructure is nowhere near prepared for the flood of telework that would follow an avian flu outbreak or other pandemic, Conrades said. Some govt. agencies are developing plans, but research on telework scenarios is “not widely talked about and [is] jealously guarded,” he said.