Common Cause Blog :: Taking on the Telcos

Taking on the Telcos

By Dawn Holian Iype
Posted on Fri Jan 20, 2006 at 06:30:44 AM EST

There's been a lot of good writing on the network neutrality issue in the last few days:

The Internet has always been about democracy--what the geeks who designed it call "network neutrality." ...Telecommunications and cable companies--let's call them telco-cable--want to change that. Verizon, Comcast, and their ilk have been lobbying Congress to transform the Internet into a two-tiered system. By tagging content, broadband providers would ensure that their own [content] (or those from companies paying them protection money) get preferential treatment and reach subscribers faster than second-tier content. This would give companies like Verizon a tremendous advantage as they roll out their own television and VoIP telephone services.

Randall Stross in the New York Times:

Now these [broadband Internet] carriers - led by Verizon Communications and BellSouth - want to create entirely new categories of fees that risk destroying the anyone-can-publish culture of the Internet. And they are lobbying for legislative protection of their meddling with the Internet content that runs through their pipes. These are not good ideas.

Dan Gillmor, speaking at a Harvard Law School event:

We're heading toward media consolidation of a different kind. ...The idea that a [cable-telephone] duopoly can not only charge what it wants for access to the pipes, but then decide what gets delivered on the pipes and in what order and not only can - but demands the right to do that and is pushing ahead to do that, that's a real threat to not just citizen media but to democracy itself. I think this is really bad, and we better get people to start focusing on it.

These threats to the freedom and openness that have defined the Internet are real. We're in serious danger of creating a two-tier Internet -- with telcos squeezing big bucks out of websites and services who are able to pay for a faster "pipeline" to Internet users, while relegating the rest of web -- including the blogosphere -- to slower, second-class status.

This is pure greed on the part of the telcos. They are already charging consumers high prices for Internet access. And now they want to charge websites like Google and Yahoo for the same bandwidth. Congress can nip this in the bud by adopting a strong network neutrality provision when it takes up telecom reform this year.

Tags: Media and Democracy (all tags)

Taking on the Telcos :: 4 Comments

Those pipes

I'm not sophisticated where this argument is concerned, but it certainly seems fair on the surface for the people who built, own and maintain "the pipes" to charge something for companies like Google that is worth billions to use them. The mentality, I fear, that says they should just provide the bandwidth out of the goodness of their hearts is like that which condones movie piracy because Spielberg is rich. Makes no sense. Without those profits, we would still be on BBS systems, posting notes to each other at God knows what clock speed.
The argument made by CC, which sounds like, "They're gonna take your 'net away, or pollute it, or censor it or something awful like that," just isn't true. They just want to be paid for the infrastructure they built.

by jhoughton1 on Thu Jan 26, 2006 at 03:52:48 PM EST

Re: Those pipes

Telecom companies aren't providing bandwidth "out of the goodness of their hearts." They built their networks and provide bandwidth because they can charge subscription fees to people like you and me who want to access the Internet. And I have no problem with them making money that way.

But I do have a problem with them trying to double-charge for access to the web. When I go online, I've already paid for my bandwidth. Why should Google or any other website I visit have to pay again? That makes as much sense as the Post Office charging both senders and recipients for the delivery of a letter.

And it's even more of a problem for the millions of websites out there that -- unlike Google -- aren't worth billions. What happens to the wide-open, freewheeling nature of the Internet when bloggers, nonprofit advocates and others can't afford to pay the so-called "owners of the pipes" for the ability to reach readers?

Christopher Stern had an excellent column last Sunday in the Washington Post called "The Coming Tug of War Over the Internet." I encourage you to check it out here.

by Dawn Holian Iype on Tue Jan 31, 2006 at 02:23:23 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Pipelines

I feel everyon should get for their efforts. Even though they re rich doesnt mean they stop getting paid for what they deserve. Same goes with google. One should always remeber that there is a cost attached to everything that has been built and researched.
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by callcenterindia on Mon May 22, 2006 at 08:51:26 AM EST

Media

Media and Democracy have an important role in this society. They can create and destroy in the same time great things. It's good that they created drug rehab facility for those that they need it.

by great on Wed Sep 05, 2007 at 03:46:46 AM EST

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Taking on the Telcos

By Dawn Holian IypePosted on Fri Jan 20, 2006 at 06:30:44 AM EST

By Dawn Holian Iype
Posted on Fri Jan 20, 2006 at 06:30:44 AM EST