[ShadowAce]

[stuartcr]

If there is money involved, I'll bet the gating will occur.

[proxy_user]

This is something that very large numbers of people have interest in.

If they all write their representatives, they will discover that they have much more power than paid lobbyists, if they chose to use it.

[Vn_survivor_67-68]

if they do this, the internet brokerages will go into the ISP business

[glorgau]

Slowdown? Nah, it's called "enhancing the user experience".

[ghostrider]

The nerve of those lowly peons. They used the internet, got free speech and bypassed the propaganda machines of the mainstream media. Now, its time to regain control of the unruly masses. Put a price tag on free speech and put the lowly peons back in the pasture. What do they think this is, a free country?

[upchuck]

Open and neutral pipes BUMP.

Quit screwing around with the Internet!!

[Dallas59]

Wouldn't they blocking out "potential" customers?

[Lazamataz]

A number of telephone companies such as SBC/AT&T, Verizon and others have begun talking about offering a new prioritization service to Internet businesses. The general concept is simple: Pay the ISP some extra money, and the data packets to and from your Web site get priority.

I'd pay. I want those t*tties to pop up QUICKLY.

Perkily, you might say.

[antiRepublicrat]

Telecoms argue that they are not getting enough return for the tremendous investments they have made to lay down fiber-optic cables and otherwise pave the information highway.

Question: How much do you guys pay for your broadband to receive data from web sites, and how much do you think Google, etc., pay the telcos for their multiple high-speed lines to serve it? That's a lot of money. The telcos are just getting greedy.

[unixfox]

Wow, now we can all pay for getting our spam, viruses and pop-ups even faster!

[BenLurkin]

Why is it that anything that crowd sets out to "reform" is always a raw deal for good Americans?

[Political Junkie Too]

This sounds like extortion.

"You don't want nuttin' to happen to your business, now do ya? Alls you gotsa to do is pay us a little protection premium, and we'll keep your business running smoothly."

-PJ

[LiberationIT]

This is similar to the Automotive Network Exchange (ANX) and the similar ENX and JNX. Used by the auto companies, it's the Internet standard with performance guarantees.

[Still Thinking]

This just in: Bill Gates the Internet!
("Internet Copyright Al Gore 1980")

[steve-b]

One of the questions on the table is whether to allow telecoms to prioritize packets in this way, or to keep Internet traffic neutral and make it illegal for them to do so.

The telecoms benefited from monopoly franchise rights. Part of the price for that is giving up the option to discriminate between customers in this manner.

Simple, really.