Internet Engineering Task Force Says 'AT&T Is Misleading' on Net Neutrality

AT&T filed a letter last week with the Federal Communications Commission claiming its plans for "paid prioritization" arrangements were supported by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the international body that develops and promotes Internet standards. In its letter, which attempted to conflate AT&T's anti-consumer plans with accepted business-class network management practices, the company stated that paid prioritization "was fully contemplated by the IETF." The IETF, however, disputes AT&T's claims. "This characterization of the IETF standard and the use of the term 'paid prioritization' by AT&T is misleading," IETF Chairman Russ Housley told the National Journal. "IETF prioritization technology is geared toward letting network users indicate how they want network providers to handle their traffic, and there is no implication in the IETF about payment based on any prioritization."

"It's obvious that what AT&T calls 'paid prioritization' is just another way of trying to get around the principle of the free, open and non-discriminatory Internet," said Gigi B. Sohn, president and co-founder of Public Knowledge. "The Internet Engineering Task Force was right to call out AT&T for this mischaracterization, and the FCC should reject the idea entirely."

Today, several leading public interest groups called on AT&T to publicly retract its recent letter to the FCC, and asked the company to stop misleading the agency on this crucial issue at a critical moment in the development of open Internet policy.