COPYCENSE

“Last November, Vinton G. Cerf wrote a letter of warning to Congress. The legendary computer scientist argued that major telecom companies could take actions to jeopardize the future of the Internet. Cerf wrote that they may begin setting up the equivalent of tollbooths and express lanes, potentially discriminating against the traffic of other companies. Such moves, Cerf warned, ‘would do great damage to the Internet as we know it.’

“Documents filed with the Federal Communications Commission show that Verizon Communications is setting aside a wide lane on its fiber-optic network for delivering its own television service. According to Marvin Sirbu, an engineering professor at Carnegie Mellon University who examined the documents, more than 80% of Verizon’s current capacity is earmarked for carrying its service, while all other traffic jostles in the remainder.”

Catherine Yang. Is Verizon a Network Hog? BusinessWeek Online. Feb. 2, 2006.

See also:

Jeff Chester. The End of the Internet? The Nation. Feb. 1, 2006.

Pedro Ferreira & Marvin Sirbu. Inefficiency in Provisioning Interconnected Communication Networks. Proceedings of the Sixth ACM Conference on Electronic Commerce. June 2005.

Updates:

Mike Farrell. Seidenberg: It’s About Cost, Not Blocking. Multichannel News. Feb. 9, 2006.

Rep. Rick Boucher. Saving the Internet. The Hill. Feb. 9, 2006.

Dan Frommer. Verizon CEO Backs Off Executive’s Google Slam. Forbes.com. Feb. 9, 2006.

Arshad Mohammed. Verizon Executive Calls for End to Google’s ‘Free Lunch.’ WashingtonPost.com. Feb. 7, 2006.

U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science & Transportation. Net Neutrality (Full Hearing). Feb. 7, 2006.

CopyCense™: K. Matthew Dames on the intersection of business, law and technology. A business venture of Seso Digital LLC.