It ain’t these guys!
The U.S. financial sector, a powerful force in Washington, may be gearing up to jump into a Capitol Hill fight over the future of the Internet and stop an effort it says could add billions in costs just to maintain current offerings.
The issue is “net neutrality” — a battle so far contained between high-speed Internet broadband operators and companies with online product offerings, such as Amazon.com —
— and the rest of us “ordinary” users.
Broadband providers such as AT&T Inc., BellSouth Corp. and Verizon Communications want to expand from flat pricing and also sell tiers of service based on the speed, reliability and security of the bandwidth used.
While those providers have said they would not block access to the open Internet, companies that sell products or services online want Congress to adopt stricter safeguards to ensure they are not pushed into a slower lane of the Internet if they do not pay more for dedicated network service.
For the financial services sector, which is expected to spend $117 billion on information technology this year, tiered pricing could add billions more in expenses to maintain online banking services and other Web offerings…
The article has lots of “clarifying” statements from the Telcos. I have no confidence about either side not selling us out. Especially when it gets to Congressional “conferences”.
Most recently we’ve covered this here and here.
What I see, is that the US is BEHIND in highspeed access..
I think we are 12th in the world at this time??
and the other countries are CHEAPER and FASTER???
and the companies HERE, want us to PAY MORE??
they WONT pay for upgrades out of THEY’RE OWN POCKETS…They WANT our money. they arent even looing for INVESTORS to help..
The U.K. is very expensive, especially when you compare services that are offered. BT recently asked for permission to basically force other ISP’s that use it’s lines to pay much higher fees and more or less force them to start charging by the minute/hour.
When I first went to the U.K. almost all high speed charged by the hour, but that gave way to monthly fees, now it looks like it may return.