Net nuetrality on deck

The telecoms are already biting back at possible net neutrality regulation. AT&T released a wildly misleading statement last week chiding possible FCC bylaws and Congressional regulation:

“It would enact a new broadband policy for the United States that would include unprecedented regulation of the Internet, This bill will jeopardize billions in badly needed Internet investment and stifle broadband deployment, … [and it] sets the stage for regulating the Internet and the operations of all private broadband networks in the U.S.”

Net neutrality would regulate the internet in the same way the First Amendment regulates free speech: it would ensure that there are no gatekeepers. The telecoms do not want this regulation because they themselves seek to regulate the internet. Comcast was busted filtering Bit Torrent data last year on its network. Furthermore, several ISP’s have publicly weighed using similar techniques for the future.

Such discrimination of data would invariably change the internet forever. Some net neutrality supporters fear the possibility of a tiered internet, one where ISP’s charge for access to layers of websites. Could this be the future of the internet if we let the telecoms run loose?