TBD on Ning
Google, Verison, Net Neutrality, and YOU
Google and Verizon Near Deal on Web Pay Tiers
By EDWARD WYATTPublished: August 4, 2010
The charges could be paid by companies, like YouTube, owned by Google, for example, to Verizon, one of the nation’s leading Internet service providers, to ensure that its content received priority as it made its way to consumers. The agreement could eventually lead to higher charges for Internet users.
Such an agreement could overthrow a once-sacred tenet of Internet policy known as net neutrality, in which no form of content is favored over another. In its place, consumers could soon see a new, tiered system, which, like cable television, imposes higher costs for premium levels of service.
Any agreement between Verizon and Google could also upend the efforts of the Federal Communications Commission to assert its authority over broadband service, which was severely restricted by a federal appeals court decision in April.
People close to the negotiations who were not authorized to speak publicly about them said an agreement could be reached as soon as next week. If completed, Google, whose Android operating system powers many Verizon wireless phones, would agree not to challenge Verizon’s ability to manage its broadband Internet network as it pleased.
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Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Chez moi on
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It looks as if you will only pay more if you want to buy a package that gives you a faster service. Nothing else will change for the basic rate payers. This probably will be snapped up by the IPhone toters who have to have every latest bell and whistle and have it right now, whatever the cost. Let them.
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Permalink Reply by ZenDog on
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I disagree - and here's more from the article:
At issue for consumers is how the companies that provide the pipeline to the Internet will ultimately direct traffic on their system, and how quickly consumers are able to gain access to certain Web content. Consumers could also see continually rising bills for Internet service, much as they have for cable television.
The prospect of a Google-Verizon agreement infuriates many consumer advocates, who feel that it would concentrate in a few corporations control of what to date has been a free and open Internet system in which consumers decide which companies are successful.
“The point of a network neutrality rule is to prevent big companies from dividing the Internet between them,” said Gigi B. Sohn, president and a founder of Public Knowledge, a consumer advocacy group. “The fate of the Internet is too large a matter to be decided by negotiations involving two companies, even companies as big as Verizon and Google.”
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and here's more:
The F.C.C., meanwhile, favors a level playing field, but it cannot impose one as long as its authority over broadband is in legal doubt. It has proposed a solution that would reclassify broadband Internet service under the Communications Act from its current designation as an “information service,” a lightly regulated designation, to a “telecommunications service,” a category that, like telephone service, is subject to stricter regulation.
The F.C.C. has said that it does not want to impose strict regulation on Internet service and rates, but seeks only the authority to enforce broadband privacy and guarantee equal access. It also wants to use federal money to subsidize broadband service for rural areas.
This whole deal is in part designed to influence the current negotiations, and personally I like the idea of privacy and equal access.
The fuckers are attempting to eliminate both principles. They are thieves armed with nothing more than lawyers, linguistic constructs, and pens. And in point of fact I had faster more reliable DIAL-UP service with the phone company than I do now with the cable company who took over our phone service.
It's obvious to me what's up. They want to SELL me faster service. I would bite, except for one little thing . . .
THEY CHARGE TOO MUCH !
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