July 17, 2007
Public Speaking Out in Favor of Net Neutrality
John Dorsey
On the web or on the air, the public is speaking out in support of protections for open access to the web.
According to a report on ars technica,
nearly 27,000 public comments in favor of net neutrality flooded the Federal Communications Commission in response to the agency's official request for public comment which ended on July 16. The overwhelming majority of the comments called for the reinstatement of rules that prohibit infrastructure companies, such as wireless and cable carriers from acting as "gatekeepers" in limiting web sites that offer voice, video, or other services that potentially compete with the carriers' products.
U.S. Senators Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Olympia Snowe (R-ME) sent a similar message to FCC Chairman Kevin Martin. Free press.net has posted
a PDF of the senators' letter, which repeated a November 7, 2005 statement made by ATT CEO, Ed Whitacre, as evidence for the need for the FCC rule: "For Google or Yahoo! or Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes for free is nuts!" The senators co-sponsored a
Net Neutrality Bill that would "ensure all content, applications and services are treated equally and fairly on the Internet by prohibiting broadband network operators from blocking, degrading, or prioritizing service on their networks."
Hundreds of the comments submitted to the FCC were sent via a net neutrality site,
savetheinternet.com, which set up a form for its visitors. Many of the comments are available on the site from visitors across the U.S. as well as other countries.
The topic of net neutrality was also discussed yesterday on San Francisco's public radio station KQED. The talk show Forum, hosted by Michael Krasny, discussed the forthcoming auction of the 700-mhz radio spectrum and its impact on net neutrality. The show's guests included Craig Aaron from freepress.net, CNET's Declan McCullagh, and Joe Farren, a spokesperson from CTIA, The Wireless Association. Farren advocated against new FCC rules and contended that the upcoming spectrum auction is being rigged to favor Google, calling it "Silicon Valley welfare". Phone calls from listeners to the show uniformly favored upholding net neutrality.
