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"They [Telcos] are spending millions of dollars to lobby Congress in order to control and monopolize the Internet and if we don't act now, they will get their way." |
Remember Acacia? Remember how they tried to claim that they owned patents to the concept of streaming video over a network? Remember how they wanted to make content providers, paysites and affiliate webmasters and educational institutions pay for the license rights to simply link to a video? Remember how a lot of companies caved into Acacia’s demands? Remember how other brave webmasters and companies stood up to Acacia?
Sadly, the Acacia problem isn’t exactly over. The case is still before the courts. However, Acacia ain’t got nothing on AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time-Warner.
In 1984, The Reagan administration deregulated the Telephone Company. Before that, there was pretty much only one telecommunications provider and that was AT&T. At that time AT&T ran Bell Telephone and Bell Telephone controlled the monopoly on a state level. The 1984 anti-trust legislation gave way to providers such as Sprint and MCI. It also prevented AT&T, Sprint, etc from becoming monopolies as well as forbidding Bell Telephone from crossing over into cable television and information industry ownership.
Twelve years later President Clinton signed into law, the Telecommunications Act of 1996. This law was designed to further de-regulate the Telcos and promote competition and growth, especially for the emerging Internet. Cable companies could provide Internet service in direct competition with the Telephone companies and vice-versa. You might remember that after the 1996 Telecommunications Act, a lot of city streets got torn up so the phone companies could install fiber-optic cable. This was the great laying down of the big pipes we enjoy today.
Here we are ten years later, a happier, more informed society because the US government forced Cable and Telephone providers to catch up with the times. Here we are ten years later and those same companies are now demanding that THEY get to decide the future of the Internet.
Forget the fact that it was the Department of Defense who first came up with the idea of communicating through networks. Ignore that silly agreement between the DOD and the University researchers to divide these networks into the Darpanet and the World Wide Web. In fact, forget the intent of a public Internet altogether because now the Telcos are telling us that they are the deciders. They are spending millions of dollars to lobby Congress in order to control and monopolize the Internet and if we don’t act now, they will get their way.
What the Telcos want is basically this: They want to charge users extra for accessing the broadband connections they’re already paying for. They also want to charge and tax content providers for the privilege of transferring bits across their networks. If Google wants to be accessible through AT&T, Google will have to pay AT&T. If Ebay wishes to be available to AOL customers, Ebay will have to pay AOL. If a small website wants to load as quickly as the SBC/YAHOO/AT&T homepage…gimme gimme gimme.
To give you an analogy of this deplorable power play, imagine it this way:
Water Utilities charge everyone basically the same rate for the same water. The water is filtered and clean and flows at the same rate through every faucet of every paying customer. Now, what if one day, those same Utility companies started charging piecemeal? You want your water to flow fully? Pay us. You want that water clean? Pay us more. You want to take that water and make lemonade for your lemonade stand? Fuck you, pay us.
This is what the Telcos are after. They want to take the public Internet and turn it into their own private club. Naturally, their services and sites would get first priority when it comes to load times and accessibility. Inevitably if they win, they will decide what will and will not appear when you open your browser. And wireless access? Well, they’ll kill that too.
This is not some wacky conspiracy theory. This is actually happening right now in the halls of government. The US Congress will soon vote on Communications Opportunity, Promotion and Enhancement Act of 2006 (COPE). COPE will bring this extortion into reality if it passed. Oh sure, there’s a tiny mention of Network Neutrality in the bill but no actual Network Neutrality exists in the legislation as it is written.
Fortunately, there is hope. Companies like Google, Microsoft, Ebay, Skype and Vonage are fighting against COPE and the Telcos. Internet pioneers such as Vint Cerf and Tim Berners-Lee have announced their opposition to COPE. Hundreds of thousands of individuals have signed a petition in favor of Network Neutrality. Congressional and Senate legislators - who aren’t dependent on Telco donations - are doing their best to enact Network Neutrality bills.
The web community is fighting to keep Telcos from monopolizing the net in a fight similar to the adult Internet’s against Acacia. Their best weapon is information and public support. Read up on Net Neutrality. Tell your friends and coworkers about this awful move by a greedy yet powerful few. Please visit:
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