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Net Neutrality 8-6-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Net Neutrality Tool Misses the Point

. . . However, what some are missing is critical to this whole net neutrality debate. It’s not that we won’t know or be able to detect if we’re experiencing packet discrimination. Heck, we already know broadband providers are going to discriminate because they’ve told us they will—AT&T’s Whitacre even said it recently again, in case there was any question.

No the issue is this: we’ll know the discrimination is happening, but the internet surfing public and web-based businesses will be unable to do anything about it. Why? Because last year the FCC gave up that discrimination complaint-process role and in Congress’ telecom bills (House and proposed Senate), even if the FCC changed its mind and wanted to do something, its hands will be tied. . . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 8-5-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding these links to the Net Neutrality Page.

It’s Saturday. Check out this music video . . . it’s cool.

We Are the Web

Internet Video

Mind If I Mislead You?

Even though Mike McCurry is AT&T’s mouthpiece, not Verizon or Vonage’s, does it make a real difference? His credibility (mind if I mislead you?) has been challenged by Michael Masnick from Techdirt. Why? Because “he asserts that Google’s access to bandwidth doesn’t cost the company a dime.”

Guess what? No matter which side of the Net Neutrality issue you may be on – you just had smoke blown up your arse! How’s it feel?

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 8-3-2006

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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’

“This thing is growing at a rate that nobody would imagine,” [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. “There’s more and more content, and you need more and more bandwidth, and somebody’s got to build it.”

“If you build it, you have to make a return on that,” he continued. “Nobody gets a free ride, that’s all.”

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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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 7-22-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

Wiretapping, Net Neutrality and Mergers: PhoneCo Power Grabs

In 1974 the US Justice Department initiated a historic lawsuit against what was then commonly known as “The Phone Company.” Eight years later AT&T was forced to divest itself of local phone businesses which were transformed into 7 regional “Baby Bells.” AT&T then focused on long distance services with two new competitors: Sprint and MCI. Today that trend is on the way to reversing itself.

Recent and pending phone industry mergers are threatening to hurt consumers and bring us back to the monopolistic pre-1974 days (see diary below). In addition, the phone companies are allowing the Bush administration to spy on Americans and we’ve seen them team up to claim such efforts are beyond judicial control. Finally big corporations and the phone companies are trying to grab corporate control of the Internet by eliminating Net Neutrality and making it into the modern day equivalent of television.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 7-10-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding this link to the Net Neutrality Page.

The Origins of the Net Neutrality Debate

For all the fuss, however, net neutrality was a non-issue one year ago. In the July 7 issue of the National Journal, senior writer Drew Clark asks how the prospect of tiered Internet access suddenly became a focus of public and Congressional debate. He traces the origins of the debate to a few revealing remarks by Ed Whitacre, the CEO of the company then known as SBC (and soon to become AT&T), suggesting that the company was eager to start charging big customers more for access to the company’s Internet backbone connections.

It’s true that Whitacre’s statement raised the alarm among heavy Internet users — but Whitacre was hardly the first to think of turning the Internet into a toll road. . . .

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE

Net Neutrality 7-7-2006

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Net Neutrality Links

I’m adding these links to the Net Neutrality Page.

Sen. George Allen is deceiving constituents on Net Neutrality

Republican Sen. George Allen is deceiving constituents about his recent vote AGAINST Net Neutrality and Internet freedom–and he’s doing it using taxpayer dollars.

Allen has accepted $113,000 in campaign cash from phone and cable companies AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, and Time Warner. Last week, he voted to let them put tollbooths on the Internet and have more control over what you see and do online–a blow to Internet freedom.

Allen is now using his taxpayer-funded website to say he “voted yes” on a bill that “addresses the issue of Net Neutrality.” Indeed, as MyDD’s Matt Stoller also points out, the bill Allen voted for “addresses” Net Neutrality by putting it on the road to elimination. He voted no on preserving Net Neutrality.

–ME “Liz” Strauss

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NET NEUTRALITY PAGE