Net neutrality
If “network neutrality” is going to prevail by default, Congress ought to just make it the law this year.
Battle lines were drawn in recent years over net neutrality, the concept where all Internet content is treated equally on a first-come, first-served basis by Internet service providers.
No law exists, though, to stop Internet carriers from charging fees to big Internet companies like Yahoo Inc. and Amazon.com Inc. to have their content delivered faster than others. That would make smaller companies, and their online customers, wait behind the big boys.
Internet carriers, especially telephone companies, have fought the net neutrality concept, advocating a tiered Internet as a way to squeeze more revenues out of their networks.
Meanwhile, net neutrality advocates reasonably argue that a tiered Internet would be unfair to consumers. Competition between businesses operating on the Internet would be stifled if fee-paying companies received preferential treatment. A tiered Internet also would hinder technical innovations.
A couple of months ago the mumbo jumbo
commercial came onto some show my husband was watching and he paused it and said he thought commercial was blowing smoke and I said yes it is and he watched it several more times while I explained net neutrality. He was astounded that they could make a commercial that was such a blantant lie, I wasn’t terribly surprised, there is money to be made and since when has big business ever worried about a few lies when it comes to greed?
Ask the average person what net neutrality is and they don’t know. They have seen that commercial though so they think it is somehow negative. When you explain it means that you can get to any website equally as quickly they are amazed. The first reaction and the one that really matters is “my internet connection isn’t free, I pay for that connection and I should decide where I go and how fast I get there.” When they give me my road runner free so they can strike deals with yahoo and google etc then I don’t care but I am paying a good chunk of change for my faster internet service and they don’t get to make my choices for me.
That isn’t what the phone and cable companies want though, they want to have their cake and eat it to. They want to charge their customers a hefty premium to have internet access, they already teir those prices by speed, and then they want to charge the internet companies for the privilege of having those customers able to see their site in a timely matter.
They certainly did aptly name their commercial because it is a bunch of mumbo jumbo, but from them, not from “those big silicon valley companies.” This is the year it will need to happen so get out there and call and write your congressman and representatives. Tell them we already pay the big telephone and cable companies for the use of their services they don’t get to have two masters.
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Technorati Tags: Net Neutrality, AT&T
Filed under: AT&T, Net Neutrality
