Requiem for Net Neutrality
by Zia ~ April 7th, 2006. Filed under: Exigencies, Webbish.It died a gruesome, grisly death, 23 to 8.
A Mercury News editorial sums it up quite nicely:
Just as lawmakers in Congress are pushing a bill that could increase competition in video and high-speed Internet services, they’re willing to allow phone and cable companies to subvert that competition.
Then again, as CNet says:
AT&T, Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon spent $230.9 million on politicians from 1998 until the present, while Amazon, eBay, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo spent only a combined $71.2 million.
The really ironic thing is that most of these people are 60-year old men who have their secretaries and wives send their e-mails. As Information Week points out:
Despite the Congressional battle, former FCC Chairman Michael Powell cautions that Congress doesn’t always make sound decisions about technology. “They have a very shallow understanding [of network neutrality],” he says, adding that this shortfall might make them more pliable to experienced telecom lobbyists.