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Congress
Debates Network Neutrality |
Posted:
05.24.06
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As Congress reforms the nation's telecommunications laws for
the first time in 10 years, a debate looms over the future of
equality on the Internet.
Printer-friendly version: PDF
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 The
telecom industry is gearing up for a multi-billion dollar overhaul
of Internet infrastructure.
This will mean faster downloads and more video, but it also raises
questions about who will pay for the improvements and whether
change will alter the freedom and innovation that characterized
the Web in its early days.
This week Congress is debating changes to the Telecommunications
Act of 1996 and whether to block Internet service providers from
favoring some content providers over others.
As the law stands now, Time Warner or Verizon could, in theory,
give You Tube preferential treatment over Google Video by giving
it more bandwidth in exchange for cash. You Tube would then run
faster on people's computers than video sites that do not pay.
The debate pits telecommunications companies, such as Verizon
and Comcast Cable, against content companies, such as Google and
Yahoo.
Most of the big content companies are pushing for "Net neutrality,"
which means all Web sites would receive equal treatment.
Also at issue is whether broadband companies can provide favorable
treatment for their own services, making it even harder for a
start-up to break into the market.
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Paying for
favored treatment |
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The telephone and cable companies that connect computers to the
Web claim that sites using bandwidth-hogging technology, such
as voice and video, should help cover the costs of a new cyber-highway.
 "Why
should they be allowed to use my pipes? The Internet can't be
free in that sense, because we and the cable companies have made
an investment, and for a Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or anybody
to expect to use these pipes [for] free is nuts," AT&T
Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr. told Business Week.
Broadband providers argue that asking companies to pay for bandwidth
will lower bills for consumers.
"Net neutrality is not about being neutral, it is about
companies that benefit from selling video on the Internet and
their potential advertisers looking to have the cost of the bandwidth
they use paid by the consumer," BellSouth spokesman Bill
McCloskey told Reuters.
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The Net neutrality
movement |
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 On
the other side are Internet giants like Amazon and Microsoft who
argue a multi-tiered Internet would stifle innovation, because
only established companies - like themselves - could afford the
added costs.
"If carriers are able to control what consumers do on the
Internet, that threatens the model of Internet communications
that has been wildly successful," Alan Davidson, Washington
policy counsel for Google, told The Washington Post.
A diverse group of nonprofit organizations, such as MoveOn.org,
Consumers Union and Gun Owners of America, also have come out
in support of Net neutrality.
 "Whenever
you see groups on the far left and the far right joining together
over what Congress is getting ready to do, it's my experience
that whatever Congress is getting ready to do is generally unconstitutional,"
Craig Fields of Gun Owners of America told PC Magazine.
Some Net neutrality advocates also warn that if the law is too
broad, the companies which connect users to the Internet also
could control what they can access.
"It comes down to trust," Craig Newmark, founder of
the popular Web site Craigslist.org,
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Blocking
competitors |
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 Net
neutrality activists argue nothing under the current bill would
stop a company like Verizon from engaging in price gouging or
blocking a competing Internet phone service, such as Vonage.
Some activists fear even e-mail providers could be impacted by
efforts to block out competition.
"What I'm concerned about is the phone companies charging
Google or someone like them a much higher price than what they
charge their own affiliate offering a similar video service,"
John Sumpter, vice president of regulatory affairs for PacWest,
told CNET News.
Broadband companies deny this would take place.
"We have no intention of blocking or degrading other services
on our network," Verizon executive David Young told CNET.
"We are giving customers what they want, which is fast pipes
at a low cost. Anyone who tries to take that away from consumers
will be punished by the market."
Congress is expected to act before the current session ends on
Oct. 6.
--
Compiled by Jeremy Lundblad for NewsHour Extra
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