Broadband Providers Lobby Against Internet Neutrality

The amazing thing is so few people know about this threat to our basic freedoms many of us have been taking for granted. Our wondrous Internet is about to be stolen from us. Big money in the form of the Telcos and Cable duopoly is on the verge of controlling what we see on the Internet.
WaPo

Open-Internet advocates said the bill would make the FCC toothless in the area of net neutrality, which is the concept that companies controlling Internet access should not use that power to block or slow particular Web services.


"We are extremely concerned that legislation before your committee would fail to protect the Internet from discrimination and would deny consumers unfettered access," six companies wrote in a letter to Barton and Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), who is chairman of the panel's subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet.


"We have urged Congress to adopt network neutrality requirements that are meaningful and enforceable. The provisions in the committee bill achieve neither goal," the letter said on behalf of Amazon.com Inc., eBay Inc., Google Inc., IAC/InterActiveCorp, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc.

The broadband lobby's main argument is that they have been limited in their growth by limited funds. Allowing tiers of Internet access will allow them to build infrastructure. But there are truths that are not widely known.
Save the Internet

Compared with other developed nations the U.S. has fallen from 3rd to 16th in broadband penetration per capita, far behind countries like Canada, South Korea and Japan. The United States also numbers 16th in terms of broadband growth rates, suggesting our world ranking won’t improve any time soon.


But that’s only the half of it. Recent Free Press analysis of the “low-priced” introductory broadband offers by companies like AT&T and Verizon reveal them to be little more than bait-and-switch gimmicks. On a per megabit basis, U.S. consumers pay 10 to 25 times more than broadband users in Japan.


The reason for the Broadband price gouging? According to Free Press’ Derek Turner, it’s due to an industry-friendly regulatory regime that gave the cable/telco duopoly control of the broadband marketplace:


The “fierce competition” among broadband platforms is seriously overstated. The FCC’s own report shows that satellite and wireless broadband continue to lose market share. Today, cable and DSL providers control almost 98 percent of the residential and small-business broadband market.


No competition means no fair pricing. As Brodsky also points out, this could become worse by regulations that allow telephone companies not to have to share their broadband networks with competitors on the theory that they will invest in the network.

What we need to retain is what has been called Network Neutrality

This is about Internet freedom. "Network Neutrality" -- the First Amendment of the Internet -- ensures that the public can view the smallest blog just as easily as the largest corporate Web site by preventing Internet companies like AT&T from rigging the playing field for only the highest-paying sites.


But Internet providers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast are spending millions of dollars lobbying Congress to gut Net Neutrality. If Congress doesn't take action now to implement meaningful network neutrality provisions, the future of the Internet is at risk.


Network Neutrality — or "Net Neutrality" for short — is the guiding principle that preserves the free and open Internet.


Net Neutrality ensures that all users can access the content or run the applications and devices of their choice. With Net Neutrality, the network's only job is to move data — not choose which data to privilege with higher quality service.


Net Neutrality is the reason why the Internet has driven economic innovation, democratic participation, and free speech online. It's why the Internet has become an unrivaled environment for open communications, civic involvement and free speech.

Consider some of the other changes that are occurring. Newspapers are going out of business all over America. Many, if not most, big city papers have been bought out by huge multimedia companies. Those media companies have shown an inclination to limit our access to the news to the point that a paid public service statement from the United Church of Christ is rejected by network TV and a book that lists the top 25 censored news stories is published annually in America.
Newspapers and other written media have been an important part of our democracy since Thomas Paine published "Common Sense" and helped light the fire of revolution and independence from a monarchy bent on exploiting, not nurturing it's colonies. Today we face a different kind of threat. Very few men control virtually all of our news in the mainstream media and they've demonstrated a willingness to limit even big stories like Downing St. Memos are still not widely known by Americans.
Al Gore characterized our democracy as "hollowed out" by a dearth of editorial variety in the "marketplace of ideas". He called for the preservation of freedom on the Internet.

We must ensure by all means possible that this medium of democracy's future develops in the mold of the open and free marketplace of ideas that our Founders knew was essential to the health and survival of freedom.

The Internet is our last hope for a free exchange of creative ideas that makes our democracy vibrant, responsive, and alive. That freedom of information is the only thing that preserves our liberty.