Separate and Unequal Internets

Google, Verizon Propose Open vs Paid Internets
By Eliot Van Buskirk August 9, 2010 | 2:54 pm | Categories: Broadband, Net Neutrality
Google and Verizon announced a joint proposal on Monday that would allow ISPs to offer premium content bundles over an unspecified global network — an unexpected gambit that would seem to call for separate and unequal internets.

The two companies say the guidelines would ensure that no internet traffic of kind is prioritized over other (with the exception of viruses, spam and the like). And on the flipside, it would grant content companies looking to deliver services that require too much bandwidth for the regular internet to do so in return for payment, via a second set of pipes.

“There should be a new, enforceable prohibition against discriminatory practices,” reads part of their proposal, posted on both Verizon’s and Google’s websites. “For the first time, wireline broadband providers would not be able to discriminate against or prioritize lawful internet content, applications or services in a way that causes harm to users or competition.”

But the bombshell is the carrot to get ISPs to accede to this basic tennet of net neutrality. The call by two giants of the internet in the midst of an already contentious debate and at first glance would seem more likely to exacerbate the discussion than bring it to a swifter conclusion by suggesting that an entirely new information highway be built to accomodate a “fast lane.”



Read More http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/08/google-verizon-propose-open-vs-paid-internets/

Google (GOOG) and Verizon (VZ), two of the leaders on either side of the contentious net neutrality issue, on Thursday both denied a report that they'd reached a compromise on the issue that could lead to higher Internet service prices for some users.

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"We have not had any conversations with Verizon about paying for carriage of Google or YouTube traffic," a Google spokesperson said in an e-mail response to IBD. "We remain as committed as we always have been to an open Internet."

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article.aspx?id=542855&ven=yahoo

Looks like that's gone out the window... :mad: