Secret talks between telecom operators and internet service providers at the US Government’s Federal Communications Commission seem to be coming to a head. The talks, including Google, Verizon, AT&T and Skype and the Open Internet Coalition have been…
Secret talks between telecom operators and internet service providers at the US Government’s Federal Communications Commission seem to be coming to a head. The talks, including Google, Verizon, AT&T and Skype and the Open Internet Coalition have been going on for the last seven weeks and have been established to thrash out an agreement on network neutrality.
The impasse between content providers such as Amazon, Google’s YouTube and Skype, which want open access for content, and the cablecos and telcos that want to charge for services taking up large amounts of bandwidth, has frozen the development of broadband and WiFi in the US. The telcos feel that they should be able to charge large bandwidth users to speed up the delivery of their services. If this happens, content providers would pass these charges on to their customers, which would lead to higher internet charges all around.
The FCC is seeking a level playing field, but is hamstrung since its legal authority over broadband is not well defined. It would like to redesignate broadband from the classification of an ‘information service’, into a ‘telecommunications service’. The latter, which is much more stringently regulated than the former, would enable greater enforcement of broadband privacy and a guarantee of equal universal access.
Today’s New York Times reports that Google and Verizon, which are in the throes of separate secret talks, have struck a deal that would allow Verizon to prioritise some of Google’s traffic – for a fee. This hammers a stake into the heart of the net neutrality programme as once this deal is struck – as soon as next week – the floodgates will open for the other telcos to start charging content providers for service provision.
