FCC’s Reported Capitulation around Open Internet Protections is a Major Step Backward
Broadband players like Verizon and Time Warner Cable have spent billions of dollars upgrading their infrastructure, and they argue that they should manage their networks as they like. They are pushing, for example, to give Netflix, Amazon and other content providers faster access to their customers at a cost.
But regulators want to prevent such deals, saying large, rich companies could have an unfair advantage. The worry is that innovation could be stifled, preventing the next Facebook or Google from getting off the ground. Consumer advocates have generally sided with regulators in the belief that Internet providers should not give preferential treatment to content companies willing to pay extra — a cost that could be passed on to customers.
From <http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/20/business/fcc-to-propose-new-rules-on-open-internet.html>
After months of insisting that he would protect free speech and innovation online by guaranteeing Open Internet protections, Federal Communications Commissioner Chairman Tom Wheeler appears ready to break his word, Common Cause said today.
Reports this morning in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and other news outlets indicate that Wheeler is circulating draft Open Internet rules that would preserve net neutrality in name only. The proposed rules would allow providers like Verizon to hit web firms with larger fees in return for delivering their content faster or more smoothly.
“If true, this proposal is a huge step backwards and just must be stopped,” said Michael Copps, a former FCC commissioner who now serves as a special adviser to Common Cause’s Media and Democracy Reform Initiative. “If the Commission subverts the Open Internet by creating a fast lane for the 1 percent and slow lanes for the 99 percent, it would be an insult to both citizens and to the promise of the Net.”
Firms like Netflix and HBO Go will surely pass any increased costs to consumers, Copps said. Other content providers, unwilling or unable to pay higher fees, risk seeing traffic on their sites dry up as consumers frustrated by slow downloads turn to their competitors.
The new rules also have implications for democracy, he added. A true Open Internet gives us an electronic public square, where everyone has an equal chance to be heard. Once broadband companies can impose tolls and put some traffic in fast lanes while slowing down other messages, candidates and groups that can afford to pay the tolls will gain an enormous advantage.
Inserted from <http://www.commoncause.org/site/apps/nlnet/content2.aspx?c=dkLNK1MQIwG&b=4773613&ct=13866385¬oc=1>