Internet service providers receive their biggest supporter yet
This week, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) indicated that federal regulators and policy makers should proceed with caution when dealing with net neutrality. The idea that Internet access should be regulated to avoid providers charging too much is not as big of a concern as many think, FTC chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras said. Majoras indicated net neutrality is a non-issue at this time in a statement given to lawyers.
Content providers such as Google have been pro net neutrality since the debate started. According to a bill by Dem. Edward Markey which was previously rejected, net neutrality maintains that service providers must provide equal service to all types of content and content providers. One example of this may be that an ISP cannot charge more for transmitting video content than say audio content, even though the two data types travel through the same network.
Tiered networking is a big topic in net neutrality as well. Content providers are concerned that prices will be heavily affected if an ISP is allowed to separate network performance depending on who paid what and when. One example of this could be a company paying a network provider higher rates so that their website would load faster on the customer end than that of another company. Companies like Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google fear that broadband prices will rise as a result and get out of hand.
For the last several years however, the industry has witnessed greater acceptance of broadband access, more of it available and a decline in access subscription prices. In the U.K., where broadband access is traditionally more costly than in the U.S., prices have gradually declined according to research by the U.K. Office of Communications. New technology rolling out such as Verizon's FiOS give DSL and cable providers even more incentives to be competitive.
Verizon, AT&T and the majority of other network providers agree the U.S. government is wasting its time. Verizon conducted its own survey on net neutrality and found the majority of consumers that took the survey were more concerned about the future of high-definition broadcasting than net neutrality. In fact, many indicated they did not know what net neutrality was or indicated that they did not even care. Hardware makers such as Cisco continue to side with the service providers.
The FTC has looked over net neutrality very carefully and at this time feels that any concerns over price hiking and anti competitive business practices will be addressed by antitrust laws, Majoras said. Search giant Google previously stated it would file antitrust complaints against any telcos if they abused network control -- a statement indicating the industry would still remain healthy and under control even without net neutrality laws.
Internet service providers have repeatedly stated that Congress should focus its attention on other areas and not on net neutrality.
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