January 18th, 2007

Subscribe

I’m sure you’ve all heard about the Net Neutrality issue and how AT&T was fighting this legislation tooth and nail but then made a concession not to pursue two-tiered pricing on the Internet in return for getting FCC approval for it’s lucrative ATT-BellSouth merger.
However, this concession by ATT does not mean that the legislation is going to be passed. Republicans have historically opposed it while Democrats are in favor. Recently, two senators, one a Democrat (Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-ND) and the other a Republican (Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-ME) have introduced a bill to guarantee that Internet service providers do not discriminate against content providers with two-tiered pricing policies. Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA), head of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications and the Internet, plans to hold hearings on a newly introduced Net Neutrality bill later this year.
Both House and Senate refused to pass Net Neutrality legislation last year, and it could also be an uphill battle this year. The very nature of the Internet is threatened if Net Neutrality does not pass. It will no longer be a level playing field for all comers if two-tiered pricing is allowed to prevail, abandoning both free speech and commerce.
We at JP Communications support this legislation. Net Neutrality will guarantee that all companies and individuals, large and small, will have the same access to consumers on the Internet. This democratic principle lies at the foundation of the Internet and should remain intact as we go forward.

Those who advocate charging more for rich media delivery content are the big telcos (AT&T and Verizon) and the cable companies (Comcast). They propose a two-tiered pricing model that would allow companies who can afford it to pay more for getting their rich media pages loaded faster. Convenient for them, but not for everyone else.
Note that these opponents claim regulation of the Internet is unnecessary and will stifle investment, innovation and creativity. However, Net Neutrality is not about regulating the Internet. It is about regulating the carriers.
We need to keep the barriers to entry low on the Internet. This position is held by Net Neutrality advocates such as Google, Yahoo, Amazon and eBay, to name a few. Many of today’s Internet giants did not even exist in the early ‘90s. It was only because of the Internet’s low-entry barriers and ability to connect consumer with marketers that these Internet companies are worth billions of dollars today. This will never happen again if Net Neutrality legislation is not passed. If you work in any Internet marketing channel, I urge you to support Net Neutrality. I urge you to support Net Neutrality by contacting your Congressional Representative and Senators to let them know how you feel.

Jason Prescott

Share This | Print This Post Print This Post | Tags: none

3 Responses to “Supporting Net Neutrality”

  1. Claudia Says:
    January 20th, 2007 at 3:13 am

    There are two sides to the Net Neutrality issue. Toptenwholesale.com is in favor of this legislation. Others oppose it. The comment by HRT145 represents the views of those who oppose Net Neutrality. We leave it up to each individual to decide for themselves.

    Those who oppose Net Neutrality include companies like AT&T, Verizon, BellSouth and Comcast. These companies spent more than $150 million to push Congress to gut Net Neutrality. However, they may not be able to overcome widespread public opposition.

    Network Neutrality has been the modus operandi of the Internet since invented by Tim Berners-Lee. This philosophy ensures that the service providers who control the “pipes” don’t interfere with content based on its ownership or source. We believe it ensures fairness and a level playing field for everyone using the Internet. That is why we support Net Neutrality.
    To address the comment by HRT145 that “Net neutrality IS about regulating the internet.” Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Ours is the opposite: Net neutrality IS NOT about regulating the Internet; it IS about regulating the carriers.

  2. Joe Preston Says:
    January 21st, 2007 at 7:21 pm

    I think the growth of web-based small business is one of the best things the US has going economically. Basically I think we are leveraging this new communication medium the way we used to leverage factory-based mass production or the Bessemer process. Net neutrality isn’t just a price increase for every small web merchant and web publisher, it’s a barrier that will safely allow the big fiber owners etc. to dive in with their “trusted partners,” or whatever they will call their cherry picked vendors, to compete in any sector they want. It will also cause a “two-tier” structure to develop in content choices. The big players will have plenty of incentive to create their own content channels that will operate on bigger margins and play to bigger audiences. The internet is great because it’s NOT cable tv, Net users aren’t forced into “channels” created by a small number of huge providers, instead the revenue from net users consumption is distributed to thousands of web site operators all over the world. Beisdes, if we don’t keep Verizon from rigging the game, I’ll have to get a job…

  3. Wayne Turner Says:
    May 12th, 2007 at 12:05 am

    Claudia is correct in the thought that it would regulate the carriers, but we all know that that could be a starting point for total regulation off the internet. It only takes one step at a time before it actually happens. We need to be careful about what we want. It may get the best of us.

    Joe is on the right track also. I have a small website of my own and would like to see it as my own for a long time. It has taken a lot work and money on my part and I would not like to see it get sweeped out from under me by companies that have a lot more money than I do. It is part of my retirement package that I am building along with other avenues of income.

    In this day and age, you have to diversify in order to make sure you don’t crash if you lose an income for retirement. I, for one, want to be able to do things without worrying about how to pay for it.

Leave a Reply