Its time for horizontal divestature. A fundamental maxium of networks must be that the same entity that controls the pipe is allowed to control content. There is no way to have democracy or free speech let alone true choice of entertainment, news and information if the same entity controls both.

Municipal layer 1 networks (fiber, conduit and telephone poles) with open access at municipal meet points would be the most appropriate way if we didn’t have total warpage of regulation by monied monopoly interests.

The good news is that a small carrier got fined. The bad news is that they weren’t breaking any laws. The FCC ruling that allows this behavior has major implications for anyone trying to deliver services to consumers. It’s worth reading here: http://ftp.fcc.gov/FCC-05-150A1.pdf

Also Mr Whitacre (AT&T CEO for now) has a very chilling comment in the article:

Yet in a Nov. 7 interview with BusinessWeek Online, AT&T CEO Edward Whitacre Jr. declared: “What [Google, Vonage, and others] would like to do is to use my pipes free. But I ain’t going to let them do that.” Whitacre and AT&T argue that they need flexibility to exact a toll from Web services that hog bandwidth.

Last time I checked I’m paying for the “pipe”, so is Googlezon, and network providers are misleading us about how much bandwidth is truly available (due to massive over subscription). Anyone who thinks that the FCC ruling 05-150 will stimulate innovation in organizations that rely on monopolistic regulations for unfair advantage hasn’t worked with telcos or MSOs.

I’ve written more about this here: http://s_shaffer.wordpress.com/2005/12/16/censored-and-robbed-by-your-network-provider-its-started/er.wordpress.com

This is one of the few times that I’ve written to my congressonal representatives. FCC 05-150 is a scandle.

In today’s IT Blogwatch, we look at the disasterous dumping of dastardly Diebold voting machines by a Florida county. Not to mention the British blogger who tries desparately not to use the C-word, after recently moving to the US… Diebold out of Leo…

Can you hear that sound? It’s the sound of the telecom troops stepping up their lobbying effort on Capitol Hill in Washingon, and on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. And the subject of this effort? The “need” for a two-tiered Internet. The...

You say you aren’t worried about network owners giving preferential treatment to their own services but ARE worried about them charging others for the same quality of service. And in same post where you excorciate the FCC on its double standard.

So if BellSouth’s new 8×8 “partnered” service is given reserved bandwidth (and this is what all the technical QoS mumbo jumbo adds up to in practice) and consequently works over my funky no-so-reliable DSL line while Vonage’s and Skype’s are unreliable and prone to odd hesitations that’s ok?

I paid for that bandwidth or at least I think I did and I believe leaching from it to give 8×8 some special privilege is leaching from me. In MY opinion (if not a lawyers) promising me “best effort” service can ONLY mean that BellSouth (ATT, et al.) don’t deliberately eat up bandwidth that they sold me. And that should include offering “prioritizeation” to their favored few or even their own directly-owned product.

Is that ok? If so how do you reason about it? And how is it true that they aren’t selling something to their 8×8 partner (or themselves should that come to pass) that they already sold me?

FCC has double standards on VoIP companies too, though it didn`t take any major step after the deadline passed away. We posted a cartoon on double standards of FCC - http://voipcentral.org/entry/fcc-vs-voip-players-a-take/

Never. Telcos would have to get into genocide.

This FCC is 100% pro-telco, anti-regulation – to a fault. The closest they get to consumer protection is a tersely worded pdf issued by Commissioner Copps now and again.

People should be very worried about this new telco move, and the apparent apathy coming from the FCC.