In other words, if telecom companies get their way, the fastest video downloads and the most comprehensive data services will come from the same companies that laid the cable for the physical link to cyberspace, and not necessarily from industry stalwarts like Google, Yahoo or Microsoft’s MSN.
“They’re looking to create a two-tiered system,” telecom analyst Jenn Freedman told XBiz. “Think of it like the difference between basic and premium cable packages, only on a much larger scale.”
That has a number of online companies worried that the telecoms will be able to play favorites.
“This is huge; the future of the Internet is at stake,” Jonathan Rintels, head of the advocacy group Center for Creative Voices in Media, said. “This would lead to a closed, proprietary Internet.”
The buzz over the possibility of a two-tiered Internet was set off in November when AT&T Chief Executive Edward Whitacre told Business Week that his company had every right to offer different Internet packages where AT&T could pick and choose which services get premium billing.
AT&T, he argued, invests billions in wires and equipment to facilitate Internet access.
“For a Google or a Yahoo or a Vonage or anybody to expect to use these pipes for free is nuts,” Whitacre said.
Nobody is talking about actually blocking content, but William Smith, CTO for BellSouth, gave strong support for the telecoms’ hopes during a news briefing in Washington last week.
“If I go to the airport, I can buy a coach standby ticket or a first-class ticket,” Smith said.
That means, Smith said, that BellSouth should be allowed to prioritize services, offering partners more bandwidth than unaffiliated content providers.
“This bill would do great damage to the Internet as we know it,” Google Vice President Vinton Cerf wrote in an open letter to Congress last week. “Telephone companies cannot tell consumers who they can call; network operators should not dictate what people can do online.”
Politicians in Washington plan to start looking at the telecoms’ proposals early next year.
In the Senate, Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, is scheduled to introduce legislation on net neutrality on Feb. 7.
Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, will introduce similar measures in the House.