Fergie's Tech Blog

On Network Neutrality: Is Verizon a Network Hog?

Catherine Yang writes on Businessweek Online:

Last November, Vinton G. Cerf wrote a letter of warning to Congress. The legendary computer scientist, now a vice-president at Google, argued that major telecom companies could take actions to jeopardize the future of the Internet. The phone companies' networks that carry Net traffic around the U.S. are much like the highway system. 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."

Now, Cerf and his Net compatriots have new ammunition to back up their fears. 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.

posted by Fergie @ 2/02/2006 08:51:00 AM