« Mining For Terrorist Data In The Blogosphere | Main | Your Portal To Blog Stories »
February 13, 2006BELTWAY BLOGROLL
An Appeal For 'Network Neutrality'
As Congress ponders the future of telecommunications policy, a new line of debate has opened over the concept of "network neutrality," and advocates of that neutrality are making their case to bloggers.
Under a system of net neutrality, dominant cable and telecommunications companies could not charge their competitors extra to offer certain high-bandwidth services over high-speed Internet networks. BellSouth and Verizon Communications have proposed doing just that, arguing that they should be able to charge more for higher quality service. But critics contend that unless networks remain neutral, the flow of commerce and information will be hindered.
Free Press is among the proponents of net neutrality, and it created an online letter-writing campaign at Net Freedom Now to push the concept. The group also spearheaded a conference call with bloggers on Friday. The speakers included Timothy Karr and Ben Scott of Free Press, Jeff Chester of the Center for Digital Democracy, and law professor Lawrence Lessig, who has a blawg.
I didn't get a chance to join the call, but Craig Aaron of Free Press provided the details after the fact. About 25 bloggers, including those from Mediageek, The Jeff Pulver Blog, Sandhill Trek and Wi-Fi Networking News, were on the one-hour call.
Bob Morris addressed the subject at Politics in the Zeros after the call. "This would destroy the Net as we know it," he said of the plan for tiered pricing by telecom and cable giants. "For example, great blogs like Crooks and Liars that do videocasting would not be able to afford top-tier prices and thus would be relegated to a slower-download-speed lane (if they weren't blocked altogether.) Technology exists now, in the form of new routers, for this to happen."
Mediageek also posted commentary on the call, as well as a related podcast. And Sandhill Trek offered some thoughts.
Posted by | 12:19 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://amcblog.nationaljournal.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/495
Listed below are links to weblogs that reference An Appeal For 'Network Neutrality':
» The future of the internet is at stake from BlueOregon
There's a fight underway over the future of the internet. Big telecom companies want to create two tiers of service - a fast tier for favored websites and services, and a slow tier for the rest of us. Activists on [Read More]
Tracked on February 13, 2006 01:37 PM
