Google hopes Rules aid Network Neutrality Effort

GOOGLE HOPES RULES AID NET NEUTRALITY EFFORT
[SOURCE: Bloomberg News 2/15, AUTHOR: Molly Peterson]
Google is using conditions regulators placed on AT&T Inc. as ammunition in its fight for rules that would bar Internet providers from charging new fees for priority access. The "network-neutrality" concessions that helped persuade the Federal Communications Commission to approve AT&T's $86 billion purchase of BellSouth Corp. on Dec. 29 could help the new Democrat-led Congress to write an industrywide law, said Alan Davidson, Google's chief Washington lobbyist. "Not all the questions were answered in the FCC approach, but it's a very good starting point," Davidson said Tuesday after speaking at a network-neutrality conference in Washington. The Federal Trade Commission is hosting the two-day event. Web companies have urged Congress not to let telephone and cable providers charge new fees for a "fast lane" that would let some companies send their content more quickly than others. They say allowing such fees could destroy the open nature of the Internet by giving broadband providers too much control over subscribers' access to content.
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