End of the Internet Coming???
Big Brother Sells Net Neutrality To The Highest Bidder
House
Ignores Public, Sells Out the Internet Last night’s {6-8-06}
House vote against an amendment that would make Net Neutrality enforceable is
the result of swarming lobbyists and a multi-million-dollar media
campaign by telephone companies that want Congress to hand
them control of the Internet.
Net Neutrality
provisions rejected by a vote of 269-152. While the voting appears to be largely partisan, with only 11 Republicans voting in favor of the amendment and a surprising 58 Democrats voting against, Net Neutrality, in its short time in the public eye, is an apolitical issue.
House Turns Deaf Ear To Net Neutrality
Despite the flurry of phone calls, emails, videos and pleas from a wide base of passionate pro-Net Neutrality constituents, representing hundreds of thousands of people from all political persuasions and hundreds of consumer groups, the House of Representatives crushed an amendment to safeguard an equal opportunity Internet.
Free
Press : Net Freedom Now! A new fight
is brewing over the future of communications in the United States. It pits the
nation's largest cable and telephone companies against those who believe the
Internet should support the free and independent flow of ideas. As more
Americans upgrade to high-speed Internet connections, the companies that control
the "pipes" are
plotting
out new ways to profit from the demand. The
telco and cable giants want to fence off the Internet: one area for the haves
— who will pay a premium to enjoy life in the fast lane — and the other for
the have-nots.
Cybertelecom
:: Net Neutrality Previously, in a
competitive ISP market, net neutrality was not a pressing issue. With
so much competition, if one ISP did not provide you with the best service, you
switched services. According to some research, individuals had on
average a choice of 10 ISPs. According to Boardwatch Magazine (no longer in
publication), at the height of the market, there were over 7000 ISPs in the
United States. But now there is generally only two ISPs: DSL from your incumbent telephone company or cable from your incumbent cable company.
With little to no competition, incumbent broadband providers have market power.
An incumbent provider has both the incentive to discriminate (much higher
profits), and the opportunity to discriminate.
Without
'Net neutrality,' will consumers pay twice? | CNET News.com
No broadband provider at this point has started charging Internet companies for
delivering content. And so far, none of them has proposed outright blocking of
traffic. But some experts fear that if broadband providers are given free rein,
they could impose Internet traffic restrictions: The
customers of companies that refuse to pay for premium network access will have
such poor quality service, consumers will be forced to go elsewhere.
newsdesk.org
| : Broadband 'Net Neutrality' in Question
Up until recently, net neutrality has been maintained on DSL and dial-up
Internet services, which travel on existing telephone lines and are governed by
"common carrier" rules that require telephone companies to transmit
data without interference. But cable and fiber-optic networks do not have such
oversight, a status that may be extended to traditional telephone networks as
well. "FCC Chair Michael Powell says we don't need common carriage any
more," said Mark Cooper of the
Consumer
Federation of America. "He has excused cable carriers from obligation
of common carriage, and will excuse the [large phone companies] from the same
obligation."
US
Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, & Transportation
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) and Co-Chairman Daniel
Inouye (D-Hawaii) scheduled a Full Committee Hearing on Net Neutrality for 10am
on Tuesday, February 7, 2006 in room 562 of the Dirksen Building.
Click
here for video of this hearing.
Vint
Cerf speaks out on net neutrality My
fear is that, as written, this bill would do great damage to the Internet
as we know it. Enshrining a rule that broadly permits network operators
to discriminate in favor of certain kinds of services and to potentially
interfere with others would place broadband operators in control of online
activity. Allowing broadband providers to segment
their IP offerings and reserve huge amounts of bandwidth for their own
services will not give consumers the broadband Internet our country and economy
need. Many people will have little or no choice among
broadband operators for the foreseeable future, implying that such operators
will have the power to exercise a great deal of control over any applications
placed on the network...
GigaOM
: » Net Neutrality Not An Optional Feature of Internet
The Internet does not exist without net neutrality. The dominant providers of
Internet access have powerful incentives to protect their existing voice and
video revenue streams from Internet enabled innovations. The ability to add
tolls by Internet application end the prospect of Vonage and VoIP as a threat to
Plain Old Telephone Service. It ends the prospect of new Internet enabled video
distribution models that might compete with CATV. Network neutrality allows end
users to choose winners and losers in an application meritocracy that threatens
service providers long dependent on barriers to entry. The idea that Yahoo could
pay Verizon to improve performance over Google means Verizon not the end user
decides which search engine wins.
Wired
News: 'Net Neutrality' Battle Widens Broadband providers such as AT&T, BellSouth and Verizon Communications want to expand from flat pricing and also sell tiers of service based on the speed, reliability and security of the bandwidth used. While those providers have said they would not block access to the open internet, companies that sell products or services online want Congress to adopt stricter safeguards to ensure they are not pushed into a slower lane of the internet if they do not pay more for dedicated network service.
Net
neutrality showdown | CNET News.com
Network operators want to charge Internet content providers for enhanced IP
services, while Net neutrality proponents say regulations are needed to prevent
abuse by the Net's gatekeepers. Here is a page of links to many articles on both
sides of the issue.
Google CEO Expresses Support For Net Neutrality
these bills "would give the big phone and cable companies the power to pick
and choose what you will be able to see and do on the Internet." He writes
of the existing information highway on which all parties have equal access. But
these companies, he says, "want the power to choose who gets access to
high-speed lanes and whose content gets seen first and fastest. They want to
build a two-tiered system and block the on-ramps for those who can't pay."
Follow The Net Neutrality Money Trail
Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), who chairs the Committee on Energy and Commerce,
has
pushed
to pass the bill as-is, without any type of legislative guarantee to bar telco
and cable giants from charging fees to the highest bidder for faster delivery of
content. Rep. Barton has repeatedly tried to block Net Neutrality
legislation and has vowed to continue to do so, arguing from the
pockets
of his contributors. [SSRsi says: vote the
money-grubbing bastiche out of office!]
Presidential Hopefuls Weigh In On Net
Neutrality "The companies that want to charge for the Internet are
running a slick public relations campaign to make themselves look like a
grassroots operation. That's why the folks on our side need to wage a real - and
overwhelming - grassroots effort to make sure Congress understands that
Americans want to keep the Internet the way it is - free and open to
everyone," writes John Edwards. [SSRsi says:
This is NOT and endorsement for Edwards. SSRsi believes Dems and Reps are BOTH equally to blame for the current state of the Nation and should be kept
from office. VOTE OUT ALL INCUMBENTS, replace them with THIRD PARTY
candidates at all levels of government!!!]
Net
Neutrality is More than Meets the Eye.
What's bewildering in the net neutrality debate is that both sides say they have
the same goals - they want the Internet to maintain its usefulness, to keep
maturing, and to continue to get better. At first glance, it would be easy to
think that one side wants that done via government regulation and the other
through the free market. But that's really not the case. Network neutrality is a
much more complex issue than "Big Business vs. Consumer Rights" or
"Big Government vs. Free-market Competition".
Center
for Digital Democracy - Save the Net
Excellent page of links to various issues concerning net neutrality.
The Net Neutrality amendment was voted
down, much to the delight of senators and congressmen everywhere, I'm sure. Share your thoughts
about this unfortunate decision at WebProWorld.
Save
the Internet : Fighting for Internet Freedom
The
Coalition believes
that the Internet is a crucial engine for economic growth and free speech. We
are working together to urge Congress to preserve Network Neutrality, the First
Amendment for the Internet that ensures that the Internet remains open to
innovation and progress. From its beginnings, the Internet has leveled the
playing field for all comers. Everyday people can have their voices heard by
thousands, even millions of people. The SavetheInternet.com Coalition --
representing millions of Americans from all walks of life -- is working together
to ensure that Congress passes no telecommunications legislation without
meaningful and enforceable Network Neutrality protections.
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