Net Neutrality is “A Load of Bollocks”

According to Neil Berkett, the new CEO of Virgin Media, “This net neutrality thing is a load of bollocks.” Mr Berkett followed this by stating that Virgin Media is already in negotiations with content providers (such as the BBC) to provide their media faster. For a fee, of course.

Those companies that refuse this commercial blackmail will find the "Information Superhighway" becomes the "Information Bus Lane."

Sometimes you wonder why CEOs are allowed to speak in public. The last time I saw this level of idiocy was from the then head of Ratners jewellery stores, Gerald Ratner. You may well be saying to yourself at this point, "Ratners? Who?"

Back in the 1980s Ratners sold "value" jewellery from high-street stores and were very successful. In fact, they had over 2,000 stores across the UK, and were making huge profits. The business was seen as one of the UK's great success stories.

That was until Gerald Ratner opened his mouth at an Institute of Directors (IoD) Conference in 1991.

So successful were they that Mr Ratner felt quite at ease describing what they sold as "crap."

"We also do cut-glass sherry decanters complete with six glasses on a silver-plated tray that your butler can serve you drinks on, all for £4.95. People say, "How can you sell this for such a low price?" I say, because it's total crap."

He then went on to describe a set of 99p earrings that they sold as "cheaper than an M&S prawn sandwich but probably wouldn't last as long."

As this was said at a private function you could be forgiven for thinking (like Gerald did) that this would be taken as a private joke amongst like-minded individuals.

Unfortunately for him the press did get hold of his comments and he made front page news, as did the subsequent collapse of his business empire. More than £500million was wiped off the value of his companies as people stopped shopping there.

Within a short time the Ratners chain was no more. This form of commercial suicide is now known as "doing a Ratner."

You've got to hope that Neil hasn't just "done a Ratner" by underestimating peoples distaste with internet traffic shaping. After all, people are paying for a fast service for ALL content, not just for those companies that can afford to pay more.

If they want to do this form of content shaping they had better look at dropping the price of their products or else they could find, like Gerald did, that the end of the line could be closer than they might think.