While attempts by telcos to meter the Net are noxious and need to be opposed, technology advancements will neutralize them long term. Telcos want tiered service, charging more for top tier, but the proflieration of ever-faster and ever-cheaper bandwidth renders this a moot point.

Fiber optic is blindngly fast, cable modem companies keep ramping up speeds, and cell phone providers now offer city wide connections for laptops. In a few years we’ll look back at current conditions as way primitive. Kids will say, “gee grandpa, you mean you had to go somewhere to get a wireless connection?” They, of course, will be used to anytime, anywhere, ultra high speed connections.

Thus, it won’t matter if telcos charge more for top tier. Bandwidth will be ubitquitous, everywhere, and cheap. Nor should there be too much concern about the Net getting locked down. It’s become too much a part of business and commerce for that to happen.

We should absolutely be vigilant and fight any attempts to meter or lock down the Net, but long term, they won’t be able to do it anyway. It’ll become like the telephone. Always there, always on, and modern life would not be the same without it.

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Google warned on Tuesday it will not hesitate to file anti-trust complaints in the United States if high-speed Internet providers abuse the market power they could receive from U.S. legislators.

Interesting. Let’s hope Yahoo and Amazon join in the fun.

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The House Judiciary Committee today passed the Net neutrality bill proposed by Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) by a 20-13 vote. The action represents the first legislative victory for the Net neutrality forces, which are pushing Congress to enact legislation that would prevent service providers from developing premium tiers of Internet content delivery with higher prices.

Yes, that Sensenbrenner…  And this is a big victory indeed.

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The Christian Coalition supports net neutrality

Roberta Combs, the President of Christian Coalition of America said, “Christian Coalition is joining a broad array of organizations, representing consumers, businesses, and all ends of the political spectrum. The Coalition is committed to working on behalf of our supporters to ensure that the Internet remains the free marketplace of ideas, products and services that it is today.”

This is an important endorsement, coming as it does from the Religious Right flank of the Republican Party. Hey, they want the Net free too, and not controlled and locked down by the telcos.

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Right now Congress is pushing a law that would abandon the First Amendment of the Internet — a principle called “network neutrality” that preserves the free and open Internet. Congress needs to hear from you today or they will hand over control of what you do online to companies like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast.

Politicians are trading favors for campaign donations from these companies. They’re being wooed by people like AT&T’s CEO, who says “the Internet can’t be free.” Sign this petition to tell your elected representatives to protect Internet freedom now. When you fill out the information and push submit, we will automatically send it to your Members of Congress.

Sign the petition

Online petitions don’t accomplish much, in my opinion, unless there’re people in the streets backing it up. However it only takes a few seconds. This battle is important and happening now. The real solution will come with a restructured system that takes control the Net out of the hands of private corporations - something many countries already have.

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The once obscure topic of Net neutrality is now front page, lead story in the Sunday LA Times.

Phone, cable may charge dot-coms that want to race along the Internet.

That headline is a bit misleading. It’s more that the cabelcos want to charge more and give the same speed or worse, slow everyone else down. And should the decades-old tenet of Net neutrality be voided by these greedheads, then in a few years, who knows what could happen. Maybe they’ll decide they don’t like political blogs, or sign a deal with Google and block Yahoo, or jack prices up to nosebleed levels.

Do you trust ATT to do the right thing and protect the consumer and keep the Net open? I don’t.

None of this happens in other countries, where the Net is seen as a public good and more protected from interference by private companies. Worse, the US, supposed high tech leader of the world, is now something like 14th in quality of net access. In France, for example, citizens get vastly faster transfer rates than here, and pay much less.

Consumers and Net users gain nothing and stand to lose much should the cablecos win here. This is predatory capitalism, attempting to enrich the few while making things worse for everyone else.

More on FreePress.net

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Senator Ron Wyden, Democrat of Oregon, will introduce new legislation today that would prohibit Internet network operators from charging companies for faster delivery of their content to consumers or favoring some content providers over others.The bill is meant to ease growing fears that open Internet access may be blocked or compromised by the Bell phone carriers and cable operators, which may create tiers of service for delivering content to consumers, much the way the post office charges more for overnight mail delivery than for regular delivery.

This is a bill worth supporting. The phone company doesn’t block phone calls from certain areas, rather they let all calls through. If “network nuetrality” is compromised then those who own Net cable will be able to do just that, block whoever they don’t like, and charge more for preferential service.

None of this is a problem elsewhere on the planet, just here in the US, home of predatory capitalism.

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From Timothy Karr at Freepress.net

Network neutrality, a principle that ensures the free flow of ideas online, appears dead on arrival in Washington as big media once again wield influence over our elected politicians.  By lining their pockets with telco dollars, certain lawmakers have opted to turn their backs on net neutrality.

Learn more about the corruption of our reps:

Take action:

That would be lawmakers on both sides of the aisles who are working for the telcos and against having the Net open. This is an issue that affects everyone. Get involved now.

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NYT Op-Ed

When you use the Internet today, your browser glides from one Web site to another, accessing all destinations with equal ease. That could change dramatically, however, if Internet service providers are allowed to tilt the playing field, giving preference to sites that pay them extra and penalizing those that don’t.

Some I.S.P.’s are phone and cable companies that make large campaign contributions, and are used to getting their way in Washington. But Americans feel strongly about an open and free Internet. Net neutrality is an issue where the public interest can and should trump the special interests.

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From MediaGeek

When it comes to the future of our media, network neutrality will be the most important issue to be debated and decided upon by Congress this year. At stake is who will control what information, data, images and sound you can receive over your broadband connection, and whether or not the big telcos like AT&T and Verizon can filter out some types of content or charge you signficantly more for the privilege.

On Feb. 7 the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing on network neutrality, and on this edition we listen to some selected testimony. We also hear from Stanford Law Prof. Larry Lessig and Jeff Chester from the Center for Digital Democracy. They tell us more about what’s at stake in this debate and how we can agitate for the public interest.

Here’s the link to their informative podcast.

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(Network) neutrality boils down — at present — to three flash-point issues involving network operators such as cable companies: whether they should be allowed to block certain rival services, such as Internet voice calls, from traveling over their networks; whether they will cut off their subscribers’ access to content that in some way competes with their own in-house programs; and whether they will cut deals to give some content and services priority delivery ahead of other offerings.

Network operators do have the tools to block content and services.

The easiest way to block applications such as voice-over-IP service is by turning off certain Internet Protocol ports on network servers and routers that feed consumers’ computers.

Content from specific providers or Web sites also can be blocked through a device that can inspect the contents of packets of information being shipped through a network.

Called a deep-packet inspection device, it can block traffic headed to any IP port on a network server, or it can block requests for Web site access based on a list of Web addresses the network operator supplies.

If the telcos and cablecos are allowed unfettered rights to do whatever they want with their piece of pipe, then the Net as we know it will cease to exist. Get involved in this fight now.

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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.

Broadband is the battleground. 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.

The innovation and creativity of the Internet are the result of its foundation as an open roadway. At serious risk is the idea of “network neutrality” — a guiding principle of the Internet that ensures all users can access the content or run the applications and devices of their choice. Corporate greed threatens to bring the Internet’s promise of advanced communications for all to a screeching halt.

The telcos want to end network neutrality forever. Then charge whatever larcenous rates they can get away with for top tier service. Everyone else will get reduced service, both in terms of bandwidth and also access. This, among other things, would kill podcasting and videocasting for the smaller players. Blogs may or may not be able to get through. Maybe they’ll refuse access to blogs whose politics they don’t like.

These big companies want the Internet as their private playpen. You want in, you pay - a lot. This is not the free market, this is corporate greed aided and abetted by the government, specifically Michael Powell, who killed network neutrality while head of the FCC. In a real free market, everyone gets to play, everyone is equal. That’s what network neutrality means. But now it’s gone.

Unless you want the Internet fenced in with toll booths everywhere, now is the time to mobilize. FreePress.net has the details.

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If you’re like most Web surfers, chances are that you never think about how you access content online. You run searches with Google, shop at Amazon, and read the news at CNN or MSNBC, no matter if you’re at home, work, or elsewhere.

The universal accessibility of the Internet has made it an essential tool for accomplishing daily tasks and providing information across the globe.

But a regulatory debate is brewing in Congress that may lead to a system where companies provide “preferred access” to some Web content services over others.

Imagine not being able to access Yahoo’s Web portal as quickly from your Internet service provider, because the company that owns the cable lines has cut a deal with Google to provide their services exclusively.

None of this is a problem in other countries. The US is a mere 14th in broadband pentration, with countries like France offering consumers a vastly faster Internet at much lower prices than in the US. That’s because their regulations make it impossible for greedy companies to try to hog the Net for themselves.

If greedhead telcos have their way, they will lock down the Net, allowing only who they want through. This needs to be stopped, and stopped now. Don’t assume the Microsofts, Googles, and Yahoos will somehow prevail. Get involved in the fight now.

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I was on a conference call yesterday about the Future of the Internet. There’s been unsettling changes in underlying laws which threaten network neutrality. If this trend continues the telcos and cablecos could, and indeed want to, institute a multi-tier system where only those who can afford it will get top service. This would destroy the Net as we know it. For example, great blogs like Crooks and Liars that do videocasting would not be able to afford top-tier prices and thus would be relegated to a slower-download-speed lane (if they weren’t blocked altogether.) Technology exists now, in the form of new routers, for this to happen.

Speakers on the call included Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig, Mark Cooper of Consumer Federation of America, Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy and Ben Scott of Free Press. I’ll be blogging about this on a continuing basis, here’s some intro information

From their main site, FreePress.net

Until now, the Internet has been governed by the principle of “network neutrality,” which allows independent voices to try out new ideas without having to pay extra or ask for permission.

But net neutrality is in danger. Major communications companies are planning to discriminate against the online content and services that they don’t yet control. If successful, their scheme would forever alter the free flow of information and ideas in the blogosphere.

Congress is now debating the future of the Internet. Unless bloggers and their readers get involved, our elected representatives could allow the Internet to become a “walled garden” and shift the digital revolution into reverse.

Send the telcos an email and let’s mobilize the blogosphere on this.

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