Billions of dollars are being spent to make our highways “intelligent�. Power companies seek to preserve energy by making the distribution and use of electric power more intelligent. Heck, even bowling alleys are more intelligent than they used to be – they keep score and show you how to knock down the pins remaining.

But proponents of net regulation seem intent on keeping the broadband network “dumb�. In his statement accompanying release of the FCC’s Notice of Inquiry on Broadband Industry Practices, Commissioner Michael J. Copps says: “The original idea was to have neutral dumb networks with intelligence invested at the edges, with you and me and millions of other users.�

Commissioner Copps seems to be evidencing nostalgia for a dumb broadband network. I find this strange when even net regulation proponents are now acknowledging the need for traffic prioritization which requires network intelligence.

Net regulation proponents appear to be the Luddites of the 21st century: why let technology move forward by adding intelligence and thus value of our tremendous national resource, the broadband network, when we can mandate that it be “dumb�? It doesn’t make sense to handicap America’s leadership in broadband technology by mandating dumb networks while other countries gain a competitive advantage by allowing, if not encouraging, network intelligence.

Adding intelligence to the network does not mean blocking, impairing or degrading the consumer’s access to the internet or to any lawful website, it does not mean that consumers shouldn’t be able to run any legal application of their choosing or be inhibited from attaching any lawful device. What it does mean is that consumers will get the best of both worlds – intelligence at the network edge as well as within the network. And, except for a few Internet Luddites, who wouldn’t want that?

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