network neutrality

Verizon filed a lawsuit today questioning the FCC's authority to implement the agency's network neutrality rules, but while the argument here is important, the underlying goal for this lawsuit and others that will be filed is finding a court sympathetic to each parties' cause.

Network neutrality gets thrown around all too often, quite frequently in misleading ways. As the NBC/Comcast merger gets closer, there were two separate claims that Comcast is violating net neutrality on Monday, probably in an effort to derail the merger or at least include greater restrictions.

Of course, it's not entirely clear if either is really a "net neutrality" issue. The first is the more dubious.

I was riding around with

Over the past few days there’s been a lot of discussion surrounding our announcement of a policy proposal on network neutrality we put together with Verizon.

On balance, we believe this proposal represents real progress on what has become a very contentious issue, and we think it could help move the network neutrality debate forward constructively.

Given Google's position on network neutrality, white space spectrum, competition and other topics, it's not too surprising that they've drawn the ire of the larger telecom operators like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast.

All three companies have massive lobbying operations, and have been busily engaged in pressuring Uncle Sam to investigate Google on every front -- be it Google's acquisition of AdMob, or AT&T's claim that Google Voice is being used to unfairly block nuns.

Ah well. Last Friday we highlighted that the White House had posted the public comments on the IP enforcement plan, and pointed out a few of them.

Everyday computer users may not fully understand that the rules allow bandwidth hogs to clog up the Internet at their expense, experts said.