Industry Braces for Net Neutrality Fallout

INDUSTRY BRACES FOR NET NEUTRALITY FALLOUT
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, AUTHOR: Amy Schatz Amy.Schatz@wsj.com]
AT&T's capitulation on the issue of "net neutrality," which led U.S. regulators to approve its $86 billion purchase of BellSouth, may have consequences far beyond the company. Supporters of net-neutrality rules, which require equal treatment of all traffic from the Internet backbone to a consumer's PC, say AT&T's agreement provides a template for future legislation and may at least temporarily hinder hopes of other telecom and cable companies from monetizing their Internet lines by charging companies such as Google or Amazon.com to give their traffic priority and faster service. The net-neutrality condition expires in two years. The FCC specifically exempted AT&T's Cingular wireless business and the portion of its network dedicated to providing its Internet television service from the conditions. Other telecom companies aren't required to abide by the conditions agreed to by AT&T, but many may feel compelled to do so because of the public backlash they would face by ignoring them. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin doesn't believe net-neutrality rules are necessary because there hasn't been evidence of problems, and he has enough votes among his Republican colleagues on the five-member board to block them. On Friday, he offered a rebuke to the FCC's two Democrats, calling the net-neutrality conditions they extracted from AT&T "unnecessary" and "discriminatory." He stopped just short of vowing that no new industrywide net-neutrality rule would pass under his watch.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB116768394926464050.html?mod=todays_us_pa...
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