Verizon: Network Neutrality fans suffer from 'paranoia'

Verizon Chief Technology Officer Dick Lynch spoke at the Progress and Freedom Foundation's annual summit in Aspen (CO) Tuesday. He urged a "change in mindset on the part of policymakers to acknowledge the realities of the 100-megabit world" and suggested that other industry participants be pragmatic as well. "The public interest can best be served by getting as much broadband in front of as many people as possible, as quickly as possible, and ensuring that investment keeps up with demand," Lynch said. "To a large extent, this is a matter of taking down the barriers to investment and refraining from erecting new ones." He said, "We need to guard against turning technical and business decisions into political decisions." He said that for economic reasons, Verizon may need to slow down some Internet traffic that is not time-sensitive -- like file-sharing or e-mail. Some people hearing this "get all incensed and they accuse me of violating things I didn't even know that I could violate," he said. Customers who are "doing a P2P download or e-mail, they aren't going to see that 22-millisecond delay. And yet that's the kind of thing that seems to (cause) paranoia."