This week, the FCC is expected to reveal the details of its Net Neutrality plan, which Chairman Julius Genachowski has discussed numerous times over the past month.
Now, a coalition of 23 of the world’s largest Internet and technology companies are formally offering their support for the new rules in a letter to the Chairman, posted to the Open Internet Colaition website.
Signed by Eric Schmidt of Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Evan Williams of Twitter, and other industry leaders, the group once again articulates the pro-Net Neutrality argument:
“For most of the Internet’s history, FCC rules have ensured that consumers have been able to choose the content and services they want over their Internet connections. Entrepreneurs, technologists, and venture capitalists have previously been able to develop new online products and services with the guarantee of neutral, nondiscriminatory access by users, which has fueled an unprecedented era of economic growth and creativity. Existing businesses have been able to leverage the power of the Internet to develop innovative product lines, reach new consumers, and create new ways of doing business.
An open Internet fuels a competitive and efficient marketplace, where consumers make the ultimate choices about which products succeed and which fail. This allows businesses of all sizes, from the smallest startup to larger corporations, to compete, yielding maximum economic growth and opportunity.”
While the major players on the Internet are seemingly united behind net neutrality, it could take “many months” for the rules to be formalized according to The Wall Street Journal. That’s because cable companies and ISPs will also have an opportunity to argue their case that a completely open Internet with no ability to cap bandwidth usage and costs is bad for business.
In any event, it would seem that a battle that has been many years in the making is finally about ready to take center stage.
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, enot-poloskun
Personal comment:
C'est drôle, Google, Facebook & co parlent un peu comme si le web leur appartenait (et qu'il fallait le protéger), non? Cela laisse un sentiment contraire au propos qui est développé par ces "grands acteurs", nouveaux consortiums data-médiatiques.