Critics of Net Neutrality measures in Congress have claimed there are no historical examples of abuse by ISPs and therefore government should not interfere. However, Jason Miller of WebProNews writes about an example of abuse coming out of Canada that shows how the words of intent coming from the men who run phone and cable companies have not been considered as evidence of what will happen here in the U.S.

The Net Neutrality opponents have “downplayed arguments in favor of Net Neutrality as ‘a problem in search of a solution,’ ‘rhetorical excesses,’ or ‘cock-and-bull’ stories,” Miller writes. He points to an instance where Canada’s Shaw Communications is charging customers a fee for “Quality of Service Enhancement” that will allow them to run Vonage’s phone service instead of their own:

“…It is a perfect example of where the consumer is forced to pay a third time for the service they want (expect that as the norm without legislative protections) and a large company bullies a smaller company infringing on its turf, staunch supporters of a perverted idea of a free market will again discount it only because it happened in Canada and not the U.S.

“But mostly it is important to remember who benefits most on either side of the issue. Over a million petitioners have pleaded with Congress to preserve the open nature of the Internet, but Congress seems more inclined to listen to a handful of corporations who stand to reap billions of dollars against the interests and desires of their customers – a customer base that will have few choices in the end.”

Companies like AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth have publicly committed to Net Neutrality principles stating that it “makes no sense” to degrade or block Internet services. The free market would not allow it; we would lose customers, they claim, conveniently ignoring the fact that most U.S. broadband customers have nowhere else to go.

Meanwhile they’re spending millions lobbying Congress against any meaningful legislation to protect Net Neutrality. AT&T and Bell South, even, “have expressed their intent to follow Shaw’s example and extend those types of tolls to other Internet services,” writes Miller.

The telcos talk out of both sides of their mouths — claiming that they have no intention to block or degrade customer access to sites while also talking about charging content providers in a way that would allow them to do just that.

Meanwhile, our elected representatives are being snowed over by a telco media and lobbying blitz that has convinced many to vote against the best interests of their constituents — and to hand over control of the Internet to companies that plan to undermine its very freedoms.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 20th, 2006 at 5:24 pm and is filed under Uncategorized.-->