Net Neutrality Links
I’m adding these links to the Net Neutrality Page.
Stevens Scrambling for Anti-Net Neutrality Votes
Stevens is still trying to force a vote on his inaptly titled telco give-away bill, the Communications, Consumers’ Choice, and Broadband Deployment Act of 2006 (S. 2686). But he’s not having much luck so far. . . .
he article singles out Santorum, DeWine, and Chafee as resisting efforts to push the bill to the floor before the elections. Not only are they hearing from constituents on this issue, they are raking in some serious cash from moneyed interests on both sides of the debate. They really don’t want to have to vote on this before the election. . . .
AT&T’s Whitacre: ‘Nobody Gets a Free Ride’
ââ¬ÅThis thing is growing at a rate that nobody would imagine,ââ¬Â [AT&T CEO Ed] Whitacre said of the market demand for bandwidth. He said AT&T networks are now handling 5.6 Petabytes of data every day. ââ¬ÅThereââ¬â¢s more and more content, and you need more and more bandwidth, and somebodyââ¬â¢s got to build it.”
ââ¬ÅIf you build it, you have to make a return on that,ââ¬Â he continued. ââ¬ÅNobody gets a free ride, thatââ¬â¢s all.ââ¬Â
This kind of language, of course, leaves open the possibility that AT&T will (or already does) offer some of its customers a better ride across its access networks in exchange for fees. But it doesn’t necessarily mean the provider would block content that it disagreed with, which is a fear that most net neutrality backers discuss the most.
–ME “Liz” Strauss
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