Net Neutrality

[Dardedar]

DAR
Seems they really let the cat out of the bag with this one:

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Ed Whitacre: Gone But Not Forgotten

AT&T chief Ed Whitacre handed the keys over to his replacement Randall Stephenson yesterday, but not before giving a rousing pep talk to fellow executives in the company’s San Antonio board room. We just received exclusive video of the AT&T chairman’s parting speech.

“There’s a problem. It’s called Net Neutrality,” Whitacre told the heirs to AT&T’s telecommunications empire. “Well, frankly, we say to hell with that. We’re gonna put up some toll booths and start charging admission.”

This statement echoes those made in the press by Whitacre and Stephenson over the last two years.

Despite claims of poverty whenever pressed to offer better services, these AT&T execs are privately gloating over more than $35 billion in gross profits over the last 12 months. Moreover, Whitacre (and now Stephenson) are pressuring Congress to allow them to provide privileged Web access to their customers to companies that pay them a special fee.

The phone and cable companies claim that this sort of discriminatory “double dipping” — charging both consumers and content providers — is necessary to provide the high-speed services that Americans demand. But it’s a fundamental shift in the neutral way the Internet has always worked. In essence, it takes away user choice — the most basic tenet of the Internet — and hands it to AT&T.

“Will Congress let us do it?” Whitacre asks his colleagues. “You bet they will — cuz we don’t call it cashin’ in. We call it ‘deregulation.’ ”

LINK

[Barbara Fitzpatrick]

There was a reason AT&T was broken up under Carter. Too bad the lesson didn't sink in.

[Lawood]

Last week I listened to a motivated fellow on CSpan. The discussion was on the new media. He used radio as an example. He reminded viewers that when radio was in its infancy (1920s) it was declared the new voice of democracy. This philosophy continued into the FDR administration and was made policy in Communications Act of 1934 which mandated "equal time" and community coverage with a certain amount of air time.
By 1939 advertisers had completely taken over radio broadcasts and controlled the viewpoints and content.

Same for internet?? By all means write your congressperson.
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