Network Neutrality: Avoiding a Net Loss

NETWORK NEUTRALITY: AVOIDING A NET LOSS
[SOURCE: TechNewsWorld 3/14, AUTHOR: Robert Pepper, Cisco]
[Commentary] To average Internet users, the battle over network neutrality must seem quite confusing, if not downright opaque. They must wonder: What's all the fuss about? After all, to this point, the Internet has been an unqualified success, adopted faster and used more creatively than almost any other technology in human history. Why impose additional regulations now? Cisco believes that empowered consumers, maximum user choices and a free marketplace are the keys to maintaining an open and innovative Internet. To that end, we support the High Tech Broadband Coalition's Connectivity Principles, which were also embodied in the Federal Communication Commission's Policy Statement of 2005. These principles constitute a type of consumer "bill of rights" for the Internet. In other words, they protect and empower consumers while also noting the consumers' responsibilities as users of the medium. To a large extent, the Internet has become so popular, successful and useful because it enriches and empowers people at the individual level. That spirit must not be jeopardized by ill-advised, untimely government regulations. Instead, it must be preserved as we go ever deeper into a new era of high-bandwidth applications and exciting new broadband services.
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/Ii1IJ10PgRjmkt/Network-Neutrality-Avoiding-a-Net-Loss.xhtml