Google’s Cerf on Net Neutrality
p2p news / p2pnet: Google has, “strong words” for legislators currently, “mulling over net neutrality issues,” observes Ars Technica
It says it’ll take any “perceived abuse” to the US Department of Justice.
Stationed at a news conference in Bulgaria, Google’s Vint Cerf said, “If we are not successful in our arguments … then we will simply have to wait until something bad happens and then we will make known our case to the Department of Justice’s anti-trust division.”
Google warned, “it will not hesitate to file anti-trust complaints in the United States if high-speed Internet providers abuse the market power they could receive from U.S. legislators,” says Reuters.
“The best way I can describe it, is that the major cable and backbone providers want very much to be able to charge as much as possible and in any way possible for the use of it’s high bandwidth infrastructure,” says TelephonyWorld’s Don Panek. “Basically service providers such as google, iTunes, video services, streaming music, and any other service which may have content to deliver to you at high speeds.
Now, however, “the ISPs and providers such as AT&T, Comcast, Verizon, and others are proposing tolls or additional costs for delivering certain high bandwidth content.
“Broadband providers have proposed tiered service offerings, which they claim allow them to recoup their investment in the last mile of the Internet, and encourage future network development. Their main claim is that as bandwidth-intensive applications become commonplace, Internet congestion will increase and the management system we have today may no longer be viable, so alternate methods may become necessary. Proponents of tiered pricing and those who oppose a ‘Net neutrality’ include the big communication companies, network equipment makers, Internet engineers, and other business-oriented interest groups.
“Their main argument is that the Internet is transforming due to fiber to the home, peering applications, VoIP, and IPTV. They claim that current regulations will be damaging to their network growth and investment plans and strategies.”
Despite extensive lobbying by the telephone carriers, “prospects for a final law this year remain uncertain,” says Reuters, a possibility compounded by the reality, “Congress faces a dwindling number of work days because of the November elections.”
Whatever happens, “whenever politics get involved with services and regulations, I end up paying more somewhere for something I have become quite accustomed to having, like my online newscasts, downloading music, hopping around freely and rather quickly to and from any site I choose,” says Panek, adding:
“Hopefully I won’t start hitting tolls when accessing my favorite high speed content sites. Of course, when and if that happens, someone will of course come out with an ‘easy pass’ for the web that automatically debits my credit card as I go back and forth between my favorite services, which will make the whole process fairly painless, and just further deplete my bank account.”
Also See:
Ars Technica – Google to Congress: we will not tolerate net abuse, July 4, 2003
Reuters – Google says bill could spark anti-trust complaints, July 4, 2006
TelephonyWorld – NETWORK NEUTRALITY – THE DEBATE HEATS UP, July 4, 2006
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July 9th, 2006 at 3:18 am
Geez, just switch to ipv6, with builtin multicasting.