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"Save Net Neutrality" The Truth About What's at Stake
-- By John Colascione, July 1st 2006 2:23 PM Eastern - Web Ad: Register a domain name
*** News, August 1st 2008: Historic Victory for Net Neutrality
You have more than likely heard of the ongoing debate over Network Neutrality that has been making news lines recently. If you haven't, then now is a good time to start finding out the truth about what is really at stake here.
Network Neutrality is a term used to prevent a cable or telephone operator (who physically connects your computer to the world wide web), from discriminating against content based on it's source. In other words, you are free to view anything you wish once you are connected to the internet and your ISP (Internet Service Provider) does not have the right to descriminate based on the source of whatever it is that you are viewing. Whether it be content provided by Google, Yahoo, or the cable company themselves, Network Neutrality laws ensure that once your computer is connected to the network, you are free to request content on that network on a "neutral" basis wherever or whatever it may be.
Without Network Neutrality, your internet service provider would have the right to pick and choose the content that is made available to you on the world wide web. If the cable company providing you access to the internet comes out with their own Google or Yahoo like service, they may just limit your access to their service and block their competitors so you cannot access them, or just make their competitors sites operate so unbearably slow, that you just get tired of using them and settle for the cable companies version of search or social networking, etc.
The cable and phone companies would like to transform the internet into something much more like your cable TV service where what you, as a consumer can access would depend greatly on what the cable company decides to make available to you, which would be based mostly on who pays them, or how they earn revenue.
This would fundamentally change the internet as we know it. Companies like Google, who were once just a duo of college kids who took innovation to the next level would be silenced and never given a chance to succeed on the net due to high costs in delivering content over the internet. The internet would resemble more of a corporate super highway for those who could "afford" to provide services and who could "afford" to pay for the fast lane.
The cable and phone companies like AT&T, Verizon, Cablevision, etc. believe that since they own the "pipes" that this information travels on, that they should be able to discriminate on what goes where and who sees what. What they really want to do is create a bidding war between companies like Yahoo and Google and make them pay for who's site loads faster on your computer. They want to extract, or what I consider blackmail these companies to pay for premium services and create a two tiered internet where companies with a larger wallet will be on the "good" and fast internet, and smaller, non financially established companies would have to travel down the old dirt road, crushing innovation and eliminating the competition that has flourished the internet and created hundreds of thousands of new companies.
These corporate giants who wish to become "gatekeepers" to the internet are NOT driven for what is best for the consumer, or consumer choice. They care only about revenue and the ability to rank order web sites based on who pays them more, or what they want you to easily find. Keep in mind that most of these ISP's have their own search engines, online newspapers, voice over IP services, etc, which they have to compete with the rest of the world. They have to compete with innovation. They have to play fair, and that's not something they are very used to.
Lets take a web site like www.skype.com for instance. Skype is a little downloadable program for making free calls over the internet to anyone else who also has Skype. All calls from Skype to land lines and mobiles within the US and Canada are also free. Imagine how much this is costing the phone companies when consumers begin using these types of services rather than the traditional phone lines to connect with family and friends. What a wonderful creation, born by innovation and the freedom of the Internet.
This is exactly what the major phone and cable companies are going after; a consumers choice to make decisions based on what is freely available to them, and not who had more money to put it on their computer.
When you watch cable television, you're watching what the cable companies want you to see, which is usually based on the highest bidder for that time slot and channel. There may be millions of other shows available to you on the internet in the near future which the cable companies don't want you to be able to see unless someone is paying for it, and the internet, as long as laws supporting Network Neutrality are in place, just doesn't work that way.
To make matters worse, these giant network operators (the big telecom's like AT&T, Verizon and cable operators like Time Warner and Comcast) are using their corporate mussel and deep pockets to clog the internet and mainstream media with a false definition of "Network Neutrality" and what it stands for, creating conflict and confusion to an already difficult situation. They claim that Network Neutrality is in the way of them building a better internet, one that can handle the future of the web, but this just isn't so. They would much rather banish Network Neutrality laws and charge Web site operators high fees in exchange for faster connections to consumers. In other words, have the ability to "cut deals" and assign priority to Internet traffic based on financial arrangements with Web sites. The truth of the matter is that they will build out their better, high-speed networks whether there are Network Neutrality rules or not. The cable companies have largely built out their networks already. The only reason that they are claiming a need to get rid of Net Neutrality is because they see an opportunity to extract more revenue and create wider profit margins at the expense of everyone but themselves.
The internet as we know it now, is a level playing field where anyone can compete regardless of business size or revenue. Any voice can be heard regardless of opinion and/or economic means. Whether you are reading a thoroughly crafted article from the New York Times or a simple comment from one of the millions of bloggers across the world, you're access to this information is your choice. You are the decision maker. This is the root to what is really at stake. Higher internet costs, less consumer choice, and a filtered, two tiered internet that delivers only what is approved by the gatekeepers.
The debate on "Network Neutrality" is not over, but the concept took a major blow recently when a Senate committee rejected a proposal to include language requiring it in a new telecommunications bill. Now is the time to get involved and take action! The cable companies and telecom's are spending literally millions of dollars trying to buy Washington D.C. to eliminate"Network Neutrality" from the telecom laws which were created in a day and age before the internet flourished into what it is today. Decisions made today will effect the rest of our lives and the cable and phone companies are keeping the issue quite. Remember, they control what you see in the mainstream, but it's the internet that brings you this information. Use it and please help to "Save Net Neutrality" before it is too late.
1 - Sign the Save the Internet petition to Congress for Internet freedom
2 - Take a Moment and Contact Congress Now - Send a Letter to Congress
Thank you for reading,
John Colascione
Searchen Networks Inc.
www.Searchen.com
www.SaveNetNeutrality.com
www.SaveNetworkNeutrality.com
Read a Statement from New York Senator Charles Schumer - August 28th 2006
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