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Yet Another Threat to Internet Freedom
Posted by wizeGurl
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There's a new threat to the future of communications in the United States. It pits the nation's largest cable and telephone companies against those who believe the Internet should support the free and independent flow of ideas.
Broadband is the key. As more Americans switch to high-speed Internet connections, the companies that control the "pipes" are dreaming up new ways to make more money from this hunger for speed. The telco and cable giants want to split the Internet into two tiers: one for those who pay extra to be pushed to the front of the broadband stream-—and the other for everyone else. |
There's nothing like double-dipping. The companies that own the ways we access broadband--phone lines, cable companies, etc.--already charge us for that access. Now, they want the bigwigs to pay to be first in line when you click on a site, presumably with better deals for companies that are related business-wise. Just imagine; Google might load twice as fast if you have one cable company, while Yahoo might load twice as fast on another. And some tiny search engine might be really slow on both, because they won't be able to pay for the speed. If AOL is connected to Time-Warner, then maybe CNN loads faster than MSNBC for AOL users. And who gets hurt? The little guys who can't afford to pay for speed. The independent news sources. Anyone who isn't part of a giant conglomerate. Oh, and anyone who likes full, fair access to any part of the internet they wish to visit. How many of us would continue to visit sites that take significantly longer to load? And why are we paying twice for the same information--because you can bet that the big companies won't be paying these fees out of their profits. No, they'll be passing the costs on to us.
At serious risk is the idea of "network neutrality" — a guiding principle of the Internet that ensures all users can access the content or run the applications and devices of their choice. Corporate greed threatens to bring the Internet’s promise of advanced communications for all to a screeching halt.
Worst of all, think about how you've been using the Internet more and more to get your entertainment and information--to download movies and TV shows, video and opinion. Do you want to have to choose which shows you can access based on your broadband provider? Notice how iTunes only sells TV shows from certain channels? How long before your broadband provider charges you extra for "out of network" websites? |
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