Get Your Hands Off the Web

GET YOUR HANDS OFF THE WEB
[SOURCE: BusinessWeek, AUTHOR: Stephen H. Wildstrom]
[Comentary] The behavior of the top telecommunications companies, especially Verizon Communications and AT&T, has convinced me that more government involvement is needed to keep communications free of corporate interference. There's a certain irony here. The carriers warn that without premiums to pay for advanced services, the U.S. risks falling behind other nations in broadband. But the U.S. is already losing ground to the rest of the industrialized world in broadband speed and percentage of homes served. Last year the U.S. fell from 12th to 15th in broadband penetration among 29 countries ranked by the Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development. Most of those nations are enthusiastic regulators. The hands-off approach hasn't served consumers well. And the Web is far too important to entrust the free flow of information to the shifting whims of a few big companies. Government must step in and tell them to leave our content alone.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/oct2007/tc20071024_623695...