By Sujata Dand
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/kera/local-kera-524861.mp3
Dallas, TX –
Sujata Dand, Reporter: This is a battle between two industry giants--Internet service providers and web site conglomerates. The conglomerates, including Google, eBay, and Amazon, believe in net neutrality--that all users of the Internet should have equal access to all content. They say that's how the net began, and it shouldn't change. The Internet Service Providers aren't sure that's fair. As the spinal cord that links us all, telcos like Verizon, Bell-South and San Antonio's AT&T are eager to charge web site owners premium fees for preferential delivery speeds across their networks.
Joe Barton, US Representative: By allowing differential pricing in a user-friendly fashion you are going to get more services, more competition, more capacity.
Dand: Republican Congressman Joe Barton from Ennis chairs the House Energy and Commerce committee. He recently championed sweeping legislation that would further deregulate the telecom industry giving Internet Service Providers the power to set their own prices. A similar proposal is currently being debated in the Senate. If either bill becomes a law, this would be the first major telecommunications legislation in a decade.
Barton:What we're saying is whoever is providing the capacity of the services in a free market with lots of competition price their product as they see fit.
Dand: That's precisely what's worrying content providers. They're stressed that the telcos will block content and/or price them off the highway. Andy Carvin of Boston is the founding editor of the Digital Divide Network, an online community of more than 9,000 Internet activists working to bridge the digital divide. Last year, Technology Review magazine named him one of the 35 leading high-tech innovators under the age of 35.
Andy Carvin, Internet activist: I'm very very worried that if network neutrality does vanish I think our online freedoms and the notion of the Internet being a village and a commons for everyone is slowly going to dissipate and that's very scary.
Dand: Would Internet providers really exercise that kind of power? When I called AT&T for a response, they sent me to their mouthpiece - Hands off the Internet.Former Clinton Press Secretary Mike McCurry is the spokesperson for this telecommunications coalition.
Mike McCurry, Hands off the Internet : It's getting crowded. The traffic jams are starting. What we are trying to do is go off to the side and build some premium lanes that the big companies could use to make sure that their products get there and that relieves the congestion on the rest of the Internet that everyone else is going to use.
Dand: McCurry thinks the government should follow the path forged by the Clinton administration and refrain from imposing further regulations on the Net. In fact, he fully supported last year's Supreme Court decision that further opened the door for teleco firms to exert greater control over their networks.
McCurry: There's a brand new world that's taking shape in which people are getting advanced information services into the home and we just have a regulatory structure that's just kind of clunky because its got the residue of the leftover 20th century telephone regulations that define a lot of what the environment looks like - we're moving away from that and frankly to regulate network neutrality at this point would be to go the wrong direction.
Dand: If Congress does take a hands-off approach to the net, neutrality advocates say that consumers would have to contend with Internet gatekeepers for the first time in history. James Dark who heads the Texas State Rifle Association fears it could lead to censorship.
James Dark, Texas State Rifle Association: Everyone who has a political message out there whether its liberal or conservative or moderate whatever - everybody stands to suffer when the 1st amendment starts going down the tubes, and whether that's through governmental interference or corporate interference.
Dand: Dark is concerned that network operators will play favorites, and the service quality a content provider gets will depend on its special business arrangement with the internet provider.
Dark: There are big corporations out there that are decidedly anti-gun - when we notice large multi-national conglomerates giving huge amounts of money to the Brady campaign and handgun control inc. We have to wonder what kind of fair shake we're going to get in that media outlet.
Dand: The ACLU has taken up the cause. Mike Howard, a TX state board member of the American Civil Liberties Union believes Internet blocking is already happening.
Mike Howard, ACLU: In one instance AOL was blocking emails that mention an advocacy group that opposed their pay for email scheme. In other instance Bell-South blocked user access to the really popular website MySpace in two different states.
Dand: Both AOL and Bell South have publicly denied blocking, and federal laws prohibit it. BUT, public policy expert Tom Giovanneti sees a practical reason for it not to happen.
Tom Giovanetti, Institute for Policy Innovation: The one thing that we've learned from the Internet is that content is king . The assumption that somehow companies would see it in their best interest to block people's access to content, to restrict their access to content, that's simply not how markets work.
Dand: Giovanetti is the President of the Institute for Policy Innovation - a free market public policy think tank founded by former Congressman Dick Armey almost 20 years ago.
Giovanetti: The real question is what's driving this thing, and I think its this idea of trying to lock in the status quo for certain players who right now have a very favorable business models, and to some degree that other people can't start competing with them.
Dand: According to Giovanetti, the bloggers, like Andy Carvin and the non-profits are just pawns in a larger plan for Web Site businesses to insulate their companies. Congressman Joe Barton agrees. And, he believes, that government regulations would only put the United States further behind other countries when it comes to broadband penetration. Currently, the US ranks 14th.
Barton: Countries like Korea and even Argentina have more broadband penetration then we do. To get that capacity out to the residential level and the commercial level - we're asking the private sector to invest billions and billions of dollars and if you're asking them to do that you have to have them price their products accordingly to recoup their investment.
Dand: Choose to regulate and the Internet may be less innovative. Do nothing and content providers may see a slow infringement on their ability to influence. For the time being - most policy makers agree with Barton - saying it's too early to preemptively legislate and that the burden of proof lies on the shoulders of the people who fiercely believe the Internet needs to be a level playing field.For KERA-90.1 I'm Sujata Dand.
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