World News
Verizon-Google deal signals emergence of 'pay-to-play' Internet
Published:
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- If the deal announced in August between Internet giant Google and telecommunications behemoth Verizon comes to pass, it could signal the biggest blow yet to the principle of net neutrality -- the notion that all networks should treat all Internet sites equally. "They're proposing to alter access to the Internet," said Katherine Grincewich, an attorney in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Office of General Counsel who tracks communications policy issues for the bishops. "They're not altering the Internet -- the Internet stays the same, but the companies that provide the customer access to the Internet are able to speed up or slow down traffic to the Web. That is simply not the way anyone has understood the Internet to get properly done," Grincewich told Catholic News Service. "Web sites which pay a fee to the network provider would have their sites open faster than those who don't pay," she added. "In such a pay-to-play Internet, parishes, dioceses, schools and all noncommercial speakers intending to use the Internet will be unable to pay fees to have their Web sites open as easily as those of large commercial entities, and may not be able to reach the audience they now reach at all." Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski declared the FCC's support for rules that would preserve net neutrality, but a series of closed-door meetings with telecom companies led observers to suspect that networks wouldn't be as neutral as they are now. Less than a week after Genachowski said talks had broken down, Google and Verizon introduced their joint plan, which would put wireless Internet usage outside the net neutrality umbrella -- and give the companies, not the FCC, the authority to regulate Internet traffic.
Copyright (c) Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .
