Verizon boss takes a shot at Net neutrality
With the Federal Communications Commission about to start working on new rules governing Net neutrality, Verizon’s chief executive officer earlier today predicted dire consequences.
With Net neutrality proponents in command of the five-member commission, it’s generally expected that new regulations will soon be in place, telling companies like Verizon, AT&T and Charter just how much (or in this case, how little) control they’ll be able to exert over the traffic flowing through their networks.
According to a story at CNET, Verizon boss Ivan Seidenberg, speaking at the Supercomm 2009 trade show in Chicago, was critical of government intervention.
Seidenberg said that Verizon is very troubled by the regulations being proposed by the Federal Communications Commission. He argued that imposing stricter regulations would pit network providers against application providers in a way that would ruin the Internet’s potential for economic growth and societal change.
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While Seidenberg and other network providers make good points about how strict rules could hurt innovation and network investment, the reality is that the FCC’s chairman has said he has no intention of creating overly strict rules that wouldn’t allow carriers to manage their networks. Genachowski has said several times that he simply wants to protect the rights of consumers to use the Internet freely.
Tim has covered a wide range of topics, including tourism, crime, aviation and gambling, since becoming a reporter in 1990. The Oklahoma native joined the Post-Dispatch in 2007 after spending nine years in Orlando. In his spare time, he's often exploring one virtual world or another. He can be reached at tbarker@post-dispatch.com. 
The internet monopolies are wrong on this one. Net Neutrality should be the rule. Seidenberg is right it will ruin certain potential for economic growth….theirs…at the expense of everyone else.
The telecoms are lying here, as is Mr. Siedenberg. The FCC merely proposes to disallow the telecoms from restricting or delaying access to the net.
All these guys want to do is makeover the internet into the same monopoly that existed before the Bell Breakup and to restrict access and competition to keep control of content and pricing.
http://dangerousintersection.org/2009/10/23/john-mccains-attempt-to-privatize-the-internet/
A battle is brewing between wireless carriers and the feds–and caught in the crossfire are the smartphones, netbooks, and bandwidth-hungry mobile applications that users are increasingly enjoying. Both camps claim to be doing what’s right for consumers: One side says that it is heading off a mobile meltdown by enforcing rules on the types of devices and services that can access networks, while the other says that giving users unfettered access to the wireless Web should be the priority.