July 21, 2006—Net Neutrality

No votes Today in the Senate. Speeches as if in morning business.

[10:18 est]

Senator Ron Wyden (OR) is speaking about potential telecommunications reform. This reform would mean certain web sites would be favored by speed. Wyden says he is in favor of net neutrality and will use all procedural maneuvers under his power to prevent discrimination on the internet, i.e. keep things the way the are. Big telecommunications interests are lobbying heavily for a telecommunications overhaul that would allow telecommunications companies (the owners of the infrastructure, the wires, etc.) to extract fees from internet service providers. Whether the additional costs assessed to the ISPs will be passed on to consumers is unclear (although why wouldn't it be passed on? i.e. just like energy costs are passed on). It is large phone and cable companies that want to deviate from net neutrality.

What this means is that certain websites you like to visit will not load as fast if the hosts of these websites have not paid extra fees to ensure that their site is favored by speed, i.e. receiving favortism when it comes to bandwith.

It is not clear to me (J Rand) which senators will defend net neutrality (the status quo) and which senators will favor a telecommunications overhaul discriminating among websites by speed.

Interestingly, it appears that the internet service providers and the search engines are opposed to any telecomm overhaul because these entities will have to pay the telecomm companies in order to have their sites load faster when viewed by surfers. For example, says Wyden, imagine if Travelocity does not pay to have their site favored. A trip that took five minutes to book before could now take, e.g., ten minutes to book. If Travelocity wants to preserve the speed at which its site loads, it will have to pay a telecomm company (the owner of the infrastructure) a fee.

Wyden says, under this scenario, "Those who own the pipes exercise their power to the detriment of the American people." The Internet would change, he says.