According to the Guerilla News Network the AT&T folks are now waging a campaign of phone trickery to ensure that the internet will be nothing but an alternative to cable TV. This is one example of what is being done:

Here’s what “k0© had to report about this latest telco effort to deceive customers:

I just got a phone call by a nice lady that tried to persuade me that net neutrality is bad. Because there is an internet price increase coming really really soon, and Google wants me to pay for it. The dialog went something like this: (obligatory awkward call center pause) Her: “Hello, I’m calling from a non profit organization called TV 4 US, and we call consumers about an upcoming internet price hike. The big internet companies, like, (small pause) Microsoft want you to pay for that. Do you think that is fair?” Me, confused: “Uhm, what are you calling about?” Her: “The internet is going to be more expensive, because big companies like Microsoft and Google are wasting all our bandwidth. Do you think consumers should pay for that? Or should the big companies that are wasting the bandwidth pay for that?” At which point I tried to argue that companies use bandwidth because consumers use their services, but of course she was trained to end her call as soon as she would hit a road block. I managed to get a little bit of information about her non profit before she hung up tho: TV 4 US apparently doesn’t have a website. Maybe they want to save some of that precious bandwidth before Google and Microsoft are gonna waste it all. But they can be reached at 888-346-1400. Just in case you want to tell them what you think about dumbing down policy issues.

Dumbing down is right. The smoke and mirrors are being trotted out bigtime and we the consumer are footing the bill, since the big money lobbying and phone campaign has already come out of our pockets in tax incentives from the Telecommunications Act of 1996– when the Telecoms promised to supply broadband to the majority of US residents, and then failed to deliver on that promise.

But the problem with this campaign of theirs is that the telecoms do NOT have truth on their side, and nothing they can say can change the truth, as the Free Press has pointed out:

FACT #1: Network Neutrality protections have existed for the entire history of the Internet.

FACT #2: Network discrimination through a “tiered Internet” will severely curtail consumer choice.

FACT #3: Network discrimination will undermine innovation, investment and competition.

FACT #4: Network discrimination will fundamentally alter the consumer’s online experience by creating fast and slow lanes for Internet content.

FACT #5: No one gets a “free ride” on the Internet.

FACT #6: Phone companies have received billions of dollars in public subsidies and private incentives to support network build-out.

FACT #7: There is little competition in the broadband market.

FACT #8: Consumers will bear the costs for network infrastructure regardless if there is Network Neutrality.

FACT #9: Investing in increased bandwidth is the most efficient way to solve increased network congestion problems.

FACT #10: Network owners have explicitly stated their intent to build business models based on discrimination.

FACT #11: The COPE Act will not deter discrimination, but it will tie the hands of the FCC from preventing it.

FACT #12: Supporters of Network Neutrality represent a broad, nonpartisan coalition that joins right and left, commercial and noncommercial interests.

(Quoted from The new report — Why Consumers Demand Internet Freedom: Network Neutrality Fact vs. Fiction)

Unfortunately debunking the telecomm lobby bull is only part of what will win this fight. We all need to contribute to the Save The Internet effort, in bucks if we’ve got them, and in time, blogspace, and calls and letters to our Senators and Congresspeople, not once, but over and over and over until they GET IT. Let them know that those who bargain away our freedom of speech will not keep their seats in Congress.

An article in the Bangor News on the possible effects of our loss of Network Neutrality from the point of view of Higher Education, really brings the point home:

Under the network operators’ plan, these vital distance learning courses and other Internet related educational programs may be cut due to already scarce education resources. Consumers, small businesses, students and other innovators also unable to pay these premium fees would also be left behind in their ability to compete and make their inventions readily available to the public via the Internet.

The network operators’ plans to violate network neutrality to create tiered networks will only inject more complexity, and cost into operating networks and at the same time create incompatible networks with no standards for performance. And while quality network access will cost more, the resulting infrastructure will be technically capable of far less, diminishing the United States’ traditional leadership role in the development of Internet technologies.

For example, today, students and faculty at the University of Maine in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health and other research labs and schools are engaged in developing new life-changing technologies like those in the areas of biomedical engineering. With the two-tiered Internet being proposed, what may be the fast lane for the University of Maine, may be the slow lane for the NIH rendering collaboration opportunities futile.

Similarly, new services developed by entrepreneurs that may perform reliably on one provider’s network, may completely fail on another’s, making the development and broad adoption of new technology nearly impossible.

The telecomms would have us believe that we’re blocking innovation by forcing Network Neutrality, but exactly the opposite is true, as the above quote points out. Not only that but the telecomms are already trying out their new technologies, in violation of the FCC’s block of Pipe Censoring. Bell South customers ONLY were cut off from MySpace and YouTube for two days.

This affects every internet user from the largest company to the smallest individual. Whether it be a publishing house trying to promote their books, a person shopping for the best price on an appliance, a web designer whose website brings her all her business, a bank whose customers use internet banking, a large search engine like Google or MSN, a small entrepreneur selling ebooks, anyone who is shopping or selling VOIP services such as SKYPE or Vonage, grassroots political movements regardless of political leaning, bloggers, . . . we all have a stake in this.

According to the Save the Internet FAQ–

* In 2004, North Carolina ISP Madison River blocked their DSL customers from using any rival Web-based phone service.

* In 2005, Canada’s telephone giant Telus blocked customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to the Telecommunications Workers Union during a labor dispute.

* Shaw, a big Canadian cable TV company, is charging an extra $10 a month to subscribers in order to “enhance” competing Internet telephone services.

* In April, Time Warner’s AOL blocked all emails that mentioned www.dearaol.com — an advocacy campaign opposing the company’s pay-to-send e-mail scheme.

This type of censorship will become the norm unless we act now. Given the chance, these gatekeepers will consistently put their own interests before the public good.

Technorati Tags: Network Neutrality, Save the Internet, Debunking the Telecomms, AT&T, Bell South, AOL, TV 4 US, censorship, free speech

This entry was posted on Sunday, June 4th, 2006 at 11:31 amunder Web News and . Comment RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.