Spluttering UK net neutrality movement gets breath of life
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Jupiter lights the way Efforts to get the net neutrality bandwagon rolling in the UK continue, with new predictions that ISPs are set to charge content providers for faster loading.â¦
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New rules should make it easier for UK net users to switch broadband suppliers.
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Websites face axe in search for 'sufficient public value'
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Business & money: Â· Auction poses threat to established networksÂ· Ofcom wants spectrum from Vodafone and O2
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In a filing before the US Federal Communications Commission this morning, the Dept. of Justice's Antitrust Division argued that proponents of "net neutrality" would stifle the natural course of free market innovation in Internet technologies.
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(InfoWorld) - Fifty-four organizations, including Amazon, Google, and TiVO, have called on the U.S. government to create a national broadband policy, saying there's no plan now in place focused on providing affordable access for all residents. The Open Internet Coalition, in a letter to Congress sent Thursday, said the U.S. government needs to adopt new measures to ensure universal affordable access to broadband, net neutrality and increased competition in the broadband market. The letter is the first step in a concerted effort coalition members will make to push broadband legislation in Congress, members said. The U.S. has fallen to 15th in per capita broadband adoption among the 30 nations that are members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, noted Ben Scott, policy director for Free Press, a media reform advocacy group. "Most alarmingly, we're not doing anything about it," he said. The U.S. lacks "any stated policy" to bring affordable broadband to more residents, added Gigi Sohn, president of Public Knowledge, a digital rights advocacy group and member of the coalition. "The government doesn't have an overarching vision on how to address these problems," she added. In March 2004, U.S. President George Bush called for universal, affordable broadband for all U.S. residents by this year, but he did not propose major changes to make that happen. It's a major hurdle that providers of cable and DSL control 96 percent of U.S. broadband subscriptions, Scott said. "We've got to face the fact that [U.S. residents] pay more for less bandwidth than our global competitors," he said. Increased access to the Internet is vital to U.S. economic growth, said the letter to Congress. "Now is the time to give this goal the urgency it deserves," the letter said. "As broadband networks become more and more integral to our economic and social life, we are reaching a tipping point where legislation is no longer simply welcome -- it is imperative." Not everyone agrees with the coalition's goals, particularly its call for net neutrality or open access on broadband networks. Large broadband providers like Verizon and AT&T have opposed efforts to pass a net neutrality law that would prohibit providers from blocking or slowing Web content from competitors. Such a law would limit providers' business plans and would discourage them from building fast new networks, the providers have said. Last month, some of the coalition's members called for open access requirements in upcoming spectrum auctions at the U.S. Federal Communications Commission. Scott Wallsten, a senior fellow at free-market think tank the Progress and Freedom Foundation, called the term "open access" a brilliant branding strategy. "How could anyone oppose proposals with names like net neutrality, Internet freedom, and open access?" Wallsten wrote in a newsletter. "But ... these proposals, if implemented, would create a regulatory hell of complicated rules and endless lobbying while undermining incentives to invest in critical wireless and wired broadband infrastructure." Other members of the Open Internet Coalition include eBay, online dating site Match.com, the Consumer Federation of America, CollegeHumor.com, and RealEstate.com.
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A UK internet service provider is offering broadband that is sixteen times faster than average packages.
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The government may take steps to ensure the UK has the infrastructure necessary for super-fast broadband.
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It's a Swedish smackdown: To protest Perspektiv Broadband's AllOfMP3 morality play, the Pirate Bay bans the ISP's users. In Monkey Bites.
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A vast online network is being used to promote social and environmental responsibility.
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Debate is good, dribbles transport secretary Tony Blair's latest online inclusion experiment may be in the process of backfiring, with more than one million people signing onto his nascent petitions website to protest against the mooted introduction of road pricing.â¦
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Comcast may have shot themselves in the foot. Lawyers are already circling in the water, and the company could be looking at a world of pain for its sneaky BitTorrent filtering.
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Analysis: Is a government move to cut off broadband for illegal downloaders enforcable?
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Liberal online activists are finding you can't move elections with  just modems and IM
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Columnist Craig J. Mathias weighs in on the debate over Net neutrality and how it applies to the wireless world.
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The telecoms watchdog Ofcom is considering how to regulate firms that let you make calls via the net.
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iPlayer the assassin After 15 years of utopian gibberish about the "internet as a platform" that (of course) "changes everything", the pigeons are finally flying home to roost. In 2008, IP networks look less like the future of media, and more like tarpits that promise to bankrupt anyone who tries to run one. Especially the middlemen - as the distributors look like going to the wall first.â¦