[Ecommerce] net neutrality editorial in NYT

[Manon Ress]

http://www.nytimes.com/

February 20, 2006
Editorial
Tollbooths on the Internet Highway

When you use the Internet today, your browser glides from one Web
site to another, accessing all destinations with equal ease. That
could change dramatically, however, if Internet service providers are
allowed to tilt the playing field, giving preference to sites that
pay them extra and penalizing those that don't.

The Senate held hearings last week on "network neutrality," the
principle that I.S.P.'s - the businesses like Verizon or Roadrunner
that deliver the Internet to your computer - should not be able to
stack the deck in this way. If the Internet is to remain free, and
freely evolving, it is important that neutrality legislation be passed.

In its current form, Internet service operates in the same
nondiscriminatory way as phone service. When someone calls your home,
the telephone company puts through the call without regard to who is
calling. In the same way, Internet service providers let Web sites
operated by eBay, CNN or any other company send information to you on
an equal footing. But perhaps not for long. It has occurred to the
service providers that the Web sites their users visit could be a
rich new revenue source. Why not charge eBay a fee for using the
Internet connection to conduct its commerce, or ask Google to pay
when customers download a video? A Verizon Communications executive
recently sent a scare through cyberspace when he said at a
telecommunications conference, as The Washington Post reported, that
Google "is enjoying a free lunch" that ought to be going to providers
like Verizon.

The solution, as far as the I.S.P.'s are concerned, could be what
some critics are calling "access tiering," different levels of access
for different sites, based on ability and willingness to pay. Giants
like Walmart.com could get very fast connections, while little-guy
sites might have to settle for the information superhighway
equivalent of a one-lane, pothole-strewn road. Since many companies
that own I.S.P.'s, like Time Warner, are also in the business of
selling online content, they could give themselves an unfair
advantage over their competition.

If access tiering takes hold, the Internet providers, rather than
consumers, could become the driving force in how the Internet
evolves. Those corporations' profit-driven choices, rather than
users' choices, would determine which sites and methodologies succeed
and fail. They also might be able to stifle promising innovations,
like Internet telephony, that compete with their own business interests.

Most Americans have little or no choice of broadband I.S.P.'s, so
they would have few options if those providers shifted away from
neutrality. Congress should protect access to the Internet in its
current form. Senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat, says he intends
to introduce an Internet neutrality bill, which would prohibit
I.S.P.'s from favoring content providers that paid them fees, or from
giving priority to their own content.
Some I.S.P.'s are phone and cable companies that make large campaign
contributions, and are used to getting their way in Washington. But
Americans feel strongly about an open and free Internet. Net
neutrality is an issue where the public interest can and should trump
the special interests.


************************************************
Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@cptech.org,
www.cptech.org

Consumer Project on Technology
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