I think this is something that has the potential to affect all of us who live on the net. What do you think?
FCC net-neutrality proposal sparks debate
Commission’s expected to issue proposed rules this morning
- By William Jackson
- Oct 22, 2009
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is expected to issue a proposal this morning for new rules that would regulate the ability of Internet carriers to interfere with traffic on their networks. But even before the proposal has been released, service providers and network operators are squaring off against application providers and consumer groups over the wisdom of network neutrality.
“We have seen a massive amount of lobbying in a way that is unprecedented,” said Markham Erickson, executive director of the Open Internet Coalition, an umbrella group of technology companies, service providers and consumer organizations.
Incumbent telecommunications and cable companies that control the transport networks that deliver services, applications and content over the Internet, have conducted what Harold Feld, legal director of the Public Knowledge advocacy group, called a “shock-and-awe campaign” of misinformation about net neutrality.
Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg used his keynote address at the Supercomm trade show in Chicago Wednesday to laud the industry’s investments in infrastructure and technology, and warn of the dangers of net neutrality.
“Proponents of net neutrality [who suggest] that network providers like Verizon and applications providers like Google, Amazon and others occupy fundamentally different parts of the Internet ecosystem — a binary world of ‘dumb pipes’ on the one hand and ‘smart applications’ on the other” — are wrong, Seidenberg said. “If fundamentally misreads how innovation happens in a dynamic and collaborative industry.”
He warned against “pitting network providers and applications developers against each other” at the expense of encouraging investment that would expand availability of broadband.
The issue of net neutrality raises the question of how far a network operator can go in managing the traffic crossing its network. Network operators claim a need to discriminate between different applications and types of traffic to optimize performance and profits. Content and service providers claim that carriers can unfairly discriminate against some traffic, blocking or throttling it back, for purely business reasons.
The FCC has taken a stand against discrimination for business reasons, and in 2005 adopted a policy statement embracing net neutrality with a statement that consumers are entitled to.