With pockets full of telecom cash, John McCain fights against Net Neutrality
October 26, 2009 by William K. Wolfrum
As the FCC works on its plans for Net Neutrality, Maverick Independent American Hero Sen. John McCain is fighting against it with his jokingly named “Internet Freedom Act” which would give telecoms like AT&T the abilities to make the Internet far less free.
McCain – who can be seen regularly on any Sunday morning TV show about politics – is once again showcasing his Maverick credentials, as he is openly doing the bidding of his corporate masters:
Senator John McCain (R-AZ) is the top recipient of campaign contributions from large Internet service providers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast over the past two years, according to a new report from the Sunlight Foundation and the Center for Responsive Politics. McCain has taken in a total of $894,379 (much of that money going to support his failed 2008 bid for the presidency), more than twice the amount taken by the next-largest beneficiary, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) $341,089.
Meanwhile, McCain has emerged as the ISPs’ biggest champion against new “network neutrality” rules from the Federal Communications Commission, which voted Thursday to move forward in the process to adopt such rules. Shortly after the FCC vote, McCain introduced a bill (the “Internet Freedom Act“) that would block regulation of the nation’s largest broadband networks.
And, of course, let us not forget the substantial freebies thrown McCain’s way by Verizon and AT&T last year:
Verizon delivered a portable tower know as a “cell site on wheels” — free of charge — to Cindy McCain’s property in June in response to an online request from Cindy McCain’s staff early last year. Such devices are usually reserved for restoring service when cell coverage is knocked out during emergencies, such as hurricanes.
In July, AT&T followed suit, wheeling in a portable tower for free to match Verizon’s offer. “This is an unusual situation,” said AT&T spokeswoman Claudia B. Jones. “You can’t have a presidential nominee in an area where there is not cell coverage.”
So why is John McCain fighting against Net Neutrality? Because his corporate masters told him to. Now that’s Maverickiness we all can believe in.
–WKW
Here is my understanding. This is not about whether ISP’s can charge whatever price they want. As far as I know, they can.
Rather, this is about whether or not Internet Backbone providers can discriminate with network traffic based on where the traffic originates. So MomAndPop.com or MomAndPop ISP will not get the same treatment as Time Warner Cable or Microsoft.com.
And all this so they can penalize low traffic folks with higher rate per byte and possibly throttle their traffic in favor of what they consider to be more important traffic.
Up to now, it has always been the case that bits are bits, to and from williamkwolfrum.com or to and from Amazon.com.
These Internet Backbone providers will argue that the traffic is going across their network. Yet they ignore that the Internet itself was developed with tax payer money and turned over to public use.
I have no idea why anyone would want to give these large telecoms a complete stranglehold on the Internet. They get paid for the traffic going across their network. The greedy bastards want more and I seriously think we should consider taking away what they have now; in other words, reengineer the Internet to take the telecoms completely out of the picture.
Substitute “healthcare system” for “Internet” and “insurance companies” for “telecoms” and the precision & power of dgun’s statement isn’t affected one whit.
Unfortunately, the comparison with the healthcare system doesn’t infuse me with an abundance of hope that our “leadership” will do anything resembling the right thing here. My only hope is that, as it now stands, the ‘net doesn’t need to be reformed, just protected — & if there’s one body that’s uniquely prepared to offer a stirring defense of the status quo, it’s the United States Congress.
& if there’s one body that’s uniquely prepared to offer a stirring defense of the status quo, it’s the United States Congress.
Wiser words have never been typed.