Neutrality and Municipalities

[SOURCE: Telephony, AUTHOR: Ed Gubbins]
Inflamed by countless bloggers and sizzling beneath the spotlight of congressional hearings, debate over network neutrality reached a boiling point this month as no less an authority than Vinton Cerf -- one of the Internet's founding fathers and a current employee of net neutrality advocate Google -- warned the Senate's Commerce Committee that incumbent carrier control of broadband networks could “fundamentally undermine” the Internet as we know it. With this dramatic stride upstage, the net neutrality debate -- and its attendant fears about censorship, prices and consumer choice -- could fuel interest in municipally owned broadband networks as an alternative to privately owned pipes. However, net neutrality proponents may find public networks to be fraught with plenty of their own problems as well. “[The] network neutrality [debate] is not a fuel for the municipal broadband movement in the U.S.,” said Pam Baker, and analyst for visiongain. “It's a … stumbling block. Cities and communities need technology companies' expertise, experience and money to build, operate and maintain [municipal broadband networks], but they cannot afford to give those companies total, or even majority, control. To do so would be perceived as governmental favoritism, which is seen as equally destructive as government competition with private companies. Yet cities repeatedly fail when they attempt to provide [muni broadband networks] themselves.” In addition, even wholesale municipal network models don't necessitate net neutrality. It's conceivable, at least in theory, that municipalities could seek to defray part of the cost of their broadband networks by following AT&T's lead, charging content providers for premium use of networks. It's unknown how Congress will ultimately handle the net neutrality issue as it embarks on a rewrite of the 1996 Telecom Act. Whatever actions legislators take are unlikely to completely resolve the issue. In the meantime, muni broadband may be motivated to act now before the rules change again.
http://telephonyonline.com/regulatory/news/telecom_neutrality_municipali...

More commentary --

* Network neutrality? Hush!
http://www.cedmagazine.com/article/CA6303855.html

* Network Neutrality
http://news.tmcnet.com/news/2006/02/20/1389045.htm