Home › content

Big ISPs push P4P as substitute for net neutrality

Sat, 2008-04-12 12:27 — ABN

So, if P4P works as well as the ISPs are claiming, then strict "net neutrality" rules should be no problem for them, right? Also, "net neutrality" rules would not be "government regulation," as Zachem says, but basic protection of citizens' fundamental rights to speak and communicate without corporate oversight or control.

You have to give Zachem credit, though, for being clever. Basically, she is saying that the bandwidth problem has been staved off with P4P, so therefore there is no need for net neutrality rules. But recall that just last month a looming "bandwidth crunch" was a main excuse put forward by ISPs for exactly the same thing--no net neutrality rules. You really have to ask yourself why corporations so much want to control the internet. Why are they so bent on defeating net neutrality?

Look what Monsanto has done with seed patents and GMO crops. If the ISPs get their way, private corporations will have the power to control what you post and receive on the internet. Period. That's what Zachem really means when she says she wants us to rely on "marketplace forces" to shape the internet. What is now the greatest public forum in history will become a "marketplace" and I can guarantee you that your Constitutional rights will be sold down the river.

I am quite certain that internet speeds will soon so far exceed what we have now that the bandwidth part of the net neutrality issue will completely disappear as an excuse for corporate control of the internet. So look for them to start leaning even harder on the "copyright" excuse. ABN
____________

Matthew Lasar | Published: April 10, 2008 - 09:30PM CT

In their latest filings with the Federal Communications Commission, AT&T and Comcast argue that new breakthroughs in "P4P" network management lessen or eliminate the need for the agency to enact stronger net neutrality rules. Comcast's statement, filed with the FCC on April 9th, hails an announcement by P2P developer Pando Networks that its experiments with P4P technology on a wide variety of U.S. broadband networks have boosted delivery speeds by up to 235 percent.

This news, Comcast vice president Kathryn A. Zachem wrote to the Commission, "provides further proof that policymakers have been right to rely on marketplace forces, rather than government regulation, to govern the evolution of Internet services."

LINK TO ORIGINAL