Internet Service Providers lobbying to gut Network Neutrality

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Here is an article you all might be interested in reading: http://telephonyonline.com/regulatory/news/bell_internet_coalitiion_042406/
It's slightly old news now, but it's still important.

Those of you living in the US might be interested in signing a petition here, though I should warn you that they are a liberal online group and automatically start sending you news on other issues if you sign the petition (which can get annoying since I concider myself to be a moderate). I recommend using a disposable email address (gmail, hotmail, etc.).

P.S. Sorry I haven't been around lately, my computer was out of service for awhile.

 

Well, the amendment intended to ensure network neutrality has been defeated a couple of days ago. The bill which passed in the House is what the telecommunication companies wanted.

For those who are not familiar wih the topic: the issue revolves around telcos' (AT&T, BellSouth) desire to charge the content providers (Google, Yahoo,E-Bay, etc) extra for the privilege of carrying their internet traffic. Now, it used to be that the telcos could not discriminate; that is, they could not charge company A an amount X for some quantity of traffic, and company B a different amount Y, or give one priority over the other. This is what goes by the name "network neutrality"; everyone's bytes are treated the same.

However, the telcos figured out that some companies make quite a load of money on-line, so they want a piece of the pie. Hence, recent legislation was introduced, aimed at letting them charge how and what they want. Now, the telcos' argument is that they own the pipes, and they should be able to conduct their business as they please. The content companies are understandably afraid that they'll have to pay more, or something bad could happen to their internet traffic (how would you like to be forced to access Google at speeds equivalent to dial-up, for example). And the regular people are afraid that this could be the end of the net as we know it; the future of the net will be dominated by big companies with large pockets, which are able to afford the fees the telcos require.

 

It looks like there is still some hope left. An article on Ars Technica two days ago indicate that the bill may be stuck in Senate for quite some time when it comes up later this month. Even if it manages to get through the Senate, there most likely will be differences between the House and Senate version, leaving them to work out the differences. In that case, we might be lucky enough to have it take long enough that the bill dies because they ran out of time.