Get out your fairy dust and magic wands boys and girls. Click your heals together three times and keep saying “there’s no place like net neutral wireless internet, there’s no place like net neutral wireless internet”. Gather round as Verizon spins a tall tale of how they will fullfill President Obama’s dream of Net Neutrality…
Regular listeners will remember a regular feature we used to do on the No Prisoners, No Mercy show called “Mad as Hell.” Since show 68 just came out, and show 69 is in recording/editing it’s time for the first written Mad as Hell…
*cue sound clip*
I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it any more.
If you have been following the plans that broadband providers all over the country have to try and dip their hands deeper in your pocket by charging by the byte good for you. Earlier this month Google and Verizon tried to broker a deal between themselves that would create a second wireless internet, creating a rich man’s world where few of us regular joes and janes could afford their by the minute rate for access – and thereby brought net neutrality talks with the FCC to a screaming halt .
Recently FCC Commissioners Copps and Clyburn were on hand in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, with Senator All Franken to speak out in favor of net neutrality and against the Google/Verizon deal. You can view Senator Frankin’s speech below. Listen to Senator Frankin’s speech and he will tell YOU how the Google/Verizon proposal would enable companies to pay for faster services for themselves called “managed services” (like buying a first class ticket as Senator Frankin points out) allowing any broadband provider to open “fast lane services” for selected web sites, leaving the average user in the dust….oh yes, and the little loop hole is that Google and Verizon want this to apply to the wired internet. And what if the FCC has a problem with this? Well the Google/Verizon plan takes care of this by “empowering” the FCC to “publish a report” (oh be still my impatient heart). Doesn’t sound so neutral for wired or wireless internet now does it?
On August 24th, Tom Tauke, executive vice president of public affairs at Verizon defended his companies proposal that a wireless internet should be excluded from net neutrality rules.
“We believe that the proposal is rational, addresses the issues and concerns of the time, parenthetically fulfills the president’s campaign promise of non-discrimination and transparency on the Internet, [and] provides guidance on more areas going forward…” – Tom Tauke, at the Aspen Forum hosted by the Technology Institute
So while you are pondering just how it is that creating a by the minute access wireless internet, free from FCC regulations, that few could afford somehow magically fulfills president Obama’s promises on Net Neutrality (we assume that it must use fairy dust)…and if Tom Tauke hasn’t already made you mad as hell…Verizon took another shot at it this last Wednesday.
Yesterday Senior Verizon spokesman David Fish had this to say on his blog (via gamepolitics.com)
“We believe a practical, principled and pro-consumer resolution of the network neutrality debate is within reach,” Fish said. “But, to get there, some people need to cool the rhetoric and stick to the facts.” – Senior Verizon Spokesman David Fish
Perhaps the rhetoric he is talking about is the reaction by the Free Press to Tom Tauke’s speech:
“Verizon can’t hide the fact that, if enacted, this pact would mark the end of the open Internet era,” said Free Press Research Director Derek Turner in a statement. “The Google-Verizon deal contains no protections for wireless access, which accounts for nearly one-third of all Internet connections, giving Verizon and other ISPs the green light to block or degrade content on their wireless networks.”
So get out your fairy dust and magic wands boys and girls. Click your heals together three times and keep saying “there’s no place like net neutral wireless internet, there’s no place like net neutral wireless internet” and maybe, just maybe, if we all clap our hands loud enough it will be so.
See you online,
Julie Whitefeather
[posted for Julie Whitefeather by The Webmaster]