AT+T made a decision two days ago with some substantial implications. In the following communication between AT+T and the FCC (PDF), AT+T clearly voiced a commitment to support Net neutrality for no less than two years from the date of the communication.
If you’re not familiar with Net neutrality, here’s the two sentence version. Net neutrality according to Tim Wu (in the Wikipedia link posted above) is a “maximally useful public information network [that] aspires to treat all content, sites, and platforms equally.” ISPs stand to gain from a lack of Net neutrality, as they would be able to set up payment structures that give paying Net content suppliers (Web site owners) preferential treatment within ISP networks. So, for instance, if Amazon were to pay Comcast a fee of some sort, Comcast customers would connect to Amazon more quickly and would download content faster.
Use your imagination to see where how the domino effect might hurt Web developers, Web hosts and the Internet public.
I’ve done the reading for you. If you open that PDF I linked above and scroll down to page nine, you’ll see AT+T was kind enough to discuss this topic directly.
Speaking of Tim Wu, here’s his analysis of the whole situation.
Thank you AT+T for making such a bold, direct statement that supports the best interests of the public.
About Paul Hirsch
Paul Hirsch is a moderator on WebHostingTalk.com, the largest Web hosting community on the Internet, and he is a founder and Core Team member of the International Web Developers Network (IWDN). He is co-owner of Studio1337, a Web design and development company located in Akron/Canton, Ohio, West. Hartford, Conn. and Teesside, U.K. Paul received his bachelors degree from Kent State University in Electronic Media Production, with minors in Computer Information Systems and Sociology. He earned a masters degree in Media Management from Kent as well. Through his theWHIR blog, he will offer perspectives on developments in design technology for the people who create what Web hosts host.
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