corporate welfare, again

Story: Linux News Urges Action on Net NeutralityTotal Replies: 0
Author Content
grouch

Jun 03, 2006
8:03 AM EDT
Taxpayers subsidized the creation of the communication infrastructure in the U.S., and subsidized the creation of the Internet. Now, the corporations in control of that infrastructure want U.S. taxpayers to subsidize double-dipping by those corporations.

You pay for a connection to the Internet, approximately according to the bandwidth capability you want. You pull data from the Internet at the rate allowed by your "pipe", regardless of where the data originates.

If you connect to Bubba's Brakes & Bricks, you may receive data up to as fast as your pipe and Bubba's paid-for pipe allow. The same holds true if you connect to MegaMonstroCorp, which has likewise purchased a certain sized pipe to the Internet.

The telcos want to put restrictors at the Internet backbone end of everyone's pipes. With this, Bubba may have paid for a big pipe to the Internet, but unless he pays again, his data will not get to your pipe at the same rate as MegaMonstroCorp, which, of course, has paid the extortion money to get its packets past the restrictors ahead of little competitor Bubba.

After decades of subsidies by taxpayers, the wired communications corporations want taxpayers to subsidize this double-dipping by way of federal law.

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