Three consumer groups repeated their calls for a U.S. law to
prevent broadband providers from blocking or slowing customer
access to some Internet content by saying the public wants
government protection.
In a survey released Wednesday, more than two-thirds of respondents
said the large telecommunications and cable companies offering
broadband services should adhere to so-called network neutrality
principles, which would guarantee that broadband users can go to
any legal Web sites they want and run any Internet applications
they want.
Without strong consumer protections, the openly accessible Internet
is in danger with few broadband provider options available to most
people, the consumer groups said.
"If we're not careful, we'll miss signs that there are threats to
openness that makes the Internet so great," said Michael J. Copps,
a Democrat on the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC),
speaking at the consumer groups' press conference. "The more
concentrated that our [broadband] providers become, the more they
have the ability, and possibly even the incentive, to act as
Internet gatekeepers.
"Our open and vibrant and freewheeling Internet is to me the last
place on earth where we should tolerate gatekeeper control," Copps
added.
A Verizon Communications Inc. spokesman said Congress should avoid
regulating the Internet.
"Verizon provides consumers open and unfettered access to the
Internet and supports the Internet neutrality principles," said
David Fish, the Verizon spokesman. "The Internet is flourishing
because consumers are in the driver's seat and government meddling
has been kept to a minimum."
Officials with large broadband providers Comcast Corp. and AT&T
Inc. didn't have an immediate comment on the press conference
hosted by the Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union and
Free Press.
The FCC's net neutrality principals, endorsed in early 2004, would
give broadband customers access to the legal content and
applications of their choice, allow them to attach the legal
devices of their choice and allow them access to information about
their service plans.
Congress will consider adding the net neutrality principles to law
as it debates a telecom reform bill this year, but large broadband
providers have generally opposed the rules. Large broadband
providers such as Verizon and Comcast have called net neutrality
rules unneeded regulation, saying they have no plans to block
access to some Web sites.
But VOIP (voice over Internet Protocol) provider Vonage Holdings
Corp. has complained about some broadband providers attempting to
block its service.
Some broadband providers have proposed a separate, faster service
for their own broadband video services, or faster access to Web
sites that pay the providers an extra fee. Officials with the three
consumer groups Wednesday complained that large broadband providers
are "double dipping" by trying to get both Web sites and Internet
users to pay them for service.
"What we have here is no less than the future of the Internet as we
know it," said Ben Scott, policy director of Free Press, a consumer
group focused on the media.
According to the groups' survey of 1,000 people, performed in the
fourth quarter of 2005:
-- 72 percent of respondents agreed that broadband providers should
administer their networks in a neutral manner.
-- 47 percent said they believe broadband providers will
voluntarily support network neutrality principles.
-- 55 percent supported a national net neutrality policy, with 54
percent supporting congressional action.
"If you change the way the Internet operates, then those customers
are going to show up to Congress with pitchforks," Scott said.
"They're going to be asking, 'Why is it that our Internet, which
used to be a free and open platform, now has a fast lane and a dirt
road?'"
Also in the survey, more than 65 percent of respondents said the
Internet was important or very important for e-mail and market
research, and more than 50 percent said it was important or very
important for getting news. More than 40 percent said the Internet
was an important part of banking and shopping.
The Internet is used for "the stuff of daily lives in our society,"
said Mark Cooper, director of research for the Consumer Federation
of America. "People do really get how important the Internet is and
how important it is to keep it open."
The survey results are available at
http://www.consumerfed.org/pdfs/net_neutrality_poll.pdf.
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