Thanks!

The industry-sponsored argument against Net Neutrality is that the Internet has never been regulated, and that the imposition of Net Neutrality rules will harm the Internet. Just the opposite is true, writes Fletcher Kittredge in the Bangor Daily News, today.

Kittredge wrote in response to a May 5 editorial by Jason Fortin of the Maine Heritage Policy Center. In his piece, Fortin regurgitated the industry talking point that “no government regulation has been needed and none has been imposed” in the history of the Internet.

Kittredge calls out Fortin for spreading this telco lie:

The telephone transmission lines over which consumers access the Internet have always been regulated until last August, when the Federal Communications Commission decided to remove the regulations that have safeguarded consumer and business access to the Internet for the past twenty-six years.

With the removal of those common carrier safeguards, the telephone company, like the cable company, is free to raise rates at will, discriminate in favor of their own Internet service provider, favor their own content and services, and even refuse to offer you broadband service at all. Do you really want to see your broadband service become just like your cable service - higher rates each year and no ability to assemble your own package of services?

Another point on which Fortin and I agree is that, in the end, it is always the consumer who pays. What is interesting is that Fortin argues that unless your cable and phone companies are free to charge you more for their services, which he already admits are slower than those available in Asia, they won’t provide you service at all.

In reality, the telephone companies have been regulated as common carriers for the past 70 years including the last decade or so that they have been providing Internet access to homes and businesses. Fortin wants to pretend that Net Neutrality never existed during the ealy days of the Internet. In fact, it is the principal reason the Internet became a revolutionary force for economic innovation, civic participation and free speech.

Fortin also implies that the large Internet content companies get access for free. To which Kittredge responds:

Again, nothing could be further from the truth. Those Internet content companies pay for access just like every other business does - in fact they pay millions of dollars per month for that access. What they don’t want is to have to pay more to get on the new telephone or cable company fast lane - a fast lane that only has value if it is restricted to a smaller number of users - or have to ask permission from the telephone or cable company gatekeeper before they can offer their content and services.

Why are Maine readers paying special attention to this debate? Their Senator Olympia Snowe (Rep.) has been an outspoken champion of Net Neutrality — continuing Maine’s proud tradition of going against the grain of the DC establishment, in this case, to take a right stand for Internet freedom.

Rather than repeating the industry line, Fortin should applaud Sen. Snowe’s “enlightened efforts to ensure that basic non-discrimination rules continue to apply to Internet transmission network operators, so that all American businesses and consumers can continue to innovate and offer services over the Internet.”

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 10th, 2006 at 11:36 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.