This is an issue that I just recently became aware of. Let's say my ISP is VeriZomcast and they obtain a financial stake in the internet phone company Vonage, what's to stop them from degrading my connection from their hubs to any Vonage competitors? There are all kinds of ways VeriZomcast could make it appear that Vonage is better (and the competitor worse) by routing "competitor traffic" through older equipment or even introducing the equivalent of "static" to degrade the performance. The only way customers would learn of this would be by a VeriZomcast whistleblower. Even then they could argue that the routing of the "competitor traffic" through older equipment was not intentional. How would customers be able to prove otherwise? This is an open invitation for mischief.
It also has implications for the marketplace of ideas. I'll quote Digby and agree that "If a telco or cable company decides they don't like this blog, for political or any other reasons, they could theoretically slow it down or block it so that their customers cannot see it. In this environment that is a very scary thing."
Take a minute and watch this short video so get a sense of what it all means.
Write you representatives today.
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