Google Expresses Concern about US Telecom Legislation

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9:54 pm on November 12, 2005 | Category: Business, Telecom Services, Telephone, Television, Regulation

Several members of the American Energy and Commerce Committee are attempting to force a draft legislation that would make it easier for telephone companies to move in to the internet video industry.

The legislation would ease requirements that force telecom companies to ask permission from the municipal government of every affected city, before they are allowed to bundle internet video services along with their cable and broadband offerings.

Republican members of the committee claim that the bill would make it easier for telephone companies to compete, while promoting innovation and boosting the economy.

Democrats, on the other hand, believe that the bill could actually hurt the health of the market by allowing a single company to freely operate telephone and internet services in the same market, and potentially control the content that is accessed by users.

Google has also expressed concerns about the new legislation, saying that it could damage the free nature of the internet. According to Google executive, Vint Cerf, “the Internet was designed with no gatekeepers over new content or services.”

“My fear is that, as written, this bill would do great damage to the Internet as we know it. Enshrining a rule that broadly permits network operators to discriminate in favor of certain kinds of services and to potentially interfere with others would place broadband operators in control of online activity. Allowing broadband providers to segment their IP offerings and reserve huge amounts of bandwidth for their own services will not give consumers the broadband Internet our country and economy need. Many people will have little or no choice among broadband operators for the foreseeable future, implying that such operators will have the power to exercise a great deal of control over any applications placed on the network,” Cerf was quoted as saying.

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