Net neutrality on Senator Clinton’s agenda

Democrats see possible legislation this year

By FRITZ MAYER

WASHINGTON, DC — With Democrats now in control of Congress, many believe they can now push through a law that guarantees “net neutrality” on the internet. On January 10, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who was an original co-sponsor of a net neutrality bill last year, issued a statement on the reintroduction of the Internet Freedom Preservation Act.

“It was under the basic principles of neutrality and non-discrimination from its inception that the internet was able to flourish. Indeed, under these conditions a small business has been able to market to the same customers as the biggest corporation. The average citizen has been able to voice their grievances in the same forum as the editors of the largest newspaper.”

Clinton and many other lawmakers are concerned that the ability of all participants to share the internet equally may be endangered if the rules of internet distribution are changed.

Some background is necessary to explain the story.

Large companies own the wires that carry telephone and cable television service into American homes; four of the biggest such companies are AT&T, Verizon, Comcast and Time Warner. With the coming of high-speed internet or broadband, the companies now use the same wires to deliver such products as email, data, sound and movies into homes.

Traditionally, companies have charged every customer the same price, and provided the same level of service for delivering products over the internet. The practice is known as “net neutrality.”

The companies that own the wires, however, would like to be able to charge some customers, such as large websites like Yahoo, a higher fee for providing faster service.

But advocates of net neutrality are concerned that if the companies are allowed to create different services for different customers, large customers will be able to buy up most of the bandwidth available for transmitting information, while small websites with meager budgets may be shut out of the internet altogether. Moreover, they argue, the companies may be able to gain significant control over the content available on the internet.

Vint Cerf of Google, who has been called one of the founding fathers of the internet, said, “Allowing broadband carriers to control what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the principles that have made the internet such a success.”

Others strongly disagree. Discussing the matter in the House last April, Representative John Shimkus of Illinois said mandating net neutrality by law would inhibit investment in new technology that could deliver internet services to customers faster and better.

The battle has pitted the nation’s largest telephone and cable companies against the nation’s largest internet companies in a contest that is likely to have far-reaching impacts on the cost and the content available on the internet in the future.

At the end of her statement, Clinton said, “As evidenced by the diverse coalition of the consumer, business and citizen groups that span the political and ideological spectrum, and who all strongly support the concept of network neutrality, it is critical that Congress take steps to preserve the principles enshrined therein.”