Raymond Lulling

Please Legislate Wisely, but dont Fail your Jobs

First off let it be known, I'm not in the industry. I'm just a Consumer trying to avoid a potential Pinch point, a face off of Giants that results in every one getting
cut.

I see the point of the Legislation that has bee Quoted. It in theory ensures that a
signal sent from one carrier to the Next is not changed or given priority in any
way. Thus for example in the Telco industry your voice will sound the same regardless of which carriers it crosses over, and the Number you dial need not be different. That is Regulation.

Then I also see the Point of the industry where I think its is Fair that an access provider content side may provide a connection optimized for certain traffic enabling more efficient use of the Connection.

Legislation should then Kick in and say that the data being carried may not be Given advantage over other Servers simply because they pay more.

This is actually critical as the Biggest carriers are becoming internet backbones,
and much data at the Request of Federal Security is Piped through Checkpoints
now. I see this the only Reason the FCC has been Blind to all the Mega Mergers.
The issue is that without law to regulate how the Backbones Regulate, they will simply sell to the Highest bidder, cutting the lights on the Rest.

However at this point I'm Quite confused.

I originally understood the Neutrality bill to Protect Telecoms, and allow them to Regulate traffic beside on who pay them per hit. The fear was as stated above they would cut the lights to any who refused to pay. Thus severing many small but popular sites like Craigs list.

Now it seems that I had it backwards and that the Legislation actually was written to simply make Packet transfer Equal. As in my Telephone call example. That no company could alter the data itself or change its priority to suit personal gain.

I have SBCyahoo DSL. To the best of what i know, its Yahoo, who is given Premium over delivered content via their deal. This seems ok as I've never really noticed any differences in Delivery on my end. Microsoft is still rumored to be working on a deal with SBC and Yahoo as well...

Before SBCyahoo was made available in our area. SBC installed new hubs to support the data. As a Direct result, really great 56k Flex connection were severely distorted into 15k modem speed and often dropped. I complained and a Tech told me it was a KNOWN side effect of the DSL hardware they installed. He said SBC knew about it before hand but Choose the hardware anyway. In order to get much of anything done on the internet I had no choice but to Subscribe to DSL once it was available, and of course its a Monopoly situation so theres only SBC, that is Unless I want to pay 34 more a month for MSN over Charter Cable lines...

Ohh yes and let us all not forget that the FED still hasn't decided whom should control ICANN. Almost anything is Possible, and their choices whatever they may be could spell disaster for the Internet as we know it.

my 2 cents
RFL