Google Stands Up for Net Neutrality

Telecom News Editorials Reports Glossary

6:35 am on February 8, 2006 | Category: Web Services, Telecom Services

As expected, Google has voiced its opposition to plans that would allow major internet service providers to pass network expansion costs on to major internet companies.

Big American internet providers like BellSouth and AT&T have suggested a system of charging high-bandwidth web services like Google, Yahoo, and Vonage for priority on the network. Traffic to sites that were willing to pay the most would be given preferential treatment, resulting in faster load times for end users. High-bandwidth sites that refused to pay, however, could see their traffic slowed to a crawl, or even blocked in some cases.

ISPs would use the extra revenue to subsidize the cost of building better next-generation networks for internet traffic.

Critics of the plan, however, including Google, argue that not all sites could afford to pay the fee, and that such a system could ultimately result in many smaller sites going out of business. Sites that did manage to survive would likely be forced to pass the extra costs on to users.

Such a system could severely hamper the open nature of the internet, and reduce the selection of free content available to users.

“Promoting an open and accessible Internet is critical for consumers,” commented Google Vice President, Vinton Cerf.

With this and other threats to the open nature of the internet looming in the future, it will be largely up to users to protest this and eradicate this attack on “net neutrality,” and the very nature of the internet as we know it.