Okay... Who Said The Foxes & Wolves Could Speak?

Broadband Giants Say Net Neutrality Fears Are Misguided

Okay, which one of us is gullible enough to believe that we can trust these broadband giants to stay fairminded about anything to do with the Internet? This is as bad as the executives of the oil companies telling congress that high prices benefit the consumer. But there are at least one hundred congress critters nodding their heads in agreement... so long as the lobbyists are still willing to listen to their financial woes.

Executives from the two largest phone companies in the U.S. have tried to set the record straight on Net neutrality by explaining the kinds of service their companies would like to offer content providers.

Tom Tauke, executive vice president for public affairs for Verizon Communications, and Jim Cicconi, senior executive vice president for AT&T, said at the TelecomNext trade show here on Wednesday that their companies have no intention of degrading or blocking other companies' traffic that rides over the public Internet.

Instead AT&T and Verizon would simply like to offer content companies, such as Google and Movielink, virtual pipes directly to consumers over their broadband connections that would allow these content companies to make sure users at home have a good experience accessing their content.

Net neutrality, which centers on whether carriers should be able to charge different fees to content providers who access their network, has been a hotly debated topic in the industry for several weeks as several lawmakers draft legislation that addresses the issue.

"There's been a misconception about the network we are building and how we plan to deliver services," said Cicconi. "What we plan to do amounts to creating dedicated services."