[IP] FCC knocks telcos' secret plan to divide and bill the web
Begin forwarded message:
From: Dewayne Hendricks <dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: January 8, 2006 12:14:24 PM EST
To: Dewayne-Net Technology List <dewayne-net@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] FCC knocks telcos' secret plan to divide and
bill the web
Reply-To: dewayne@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Original URL: <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/01/07/ces_fcc_wsj/>
FCC knocks telcos' secret plan to divide and bill the web
By Ashlee Vance in Las Vegas
Published Saturday 7th January 2006 08:37 GMT
CES Forgive us if the FCC Chairman’s message today about maintaining
a level of decency on the public airwaves didn't take. A pair of very
large, very exposed breasts proved too distracting.
Yes, these are the moments you pray for every year here at the
Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The gadget fest, for those of you
who haven't heard, takes place at the same time as the Adult
Entertainment Expo. The two conferences, in fact, collide at the
Sands Expo and Convention Center where a few CES sessions are held.
Throughout the Sands' halls, you'll see the g-string set meet the
Crackberry crew.
FCC Chairman Kevin Martin today held a question and ansdwer session
at the Sands where he touched on a number of topics, including US
broadband usage, VoIP and, of course, keeping TV and radio safe for
public consumption. After the Chairman's speech ended, we walked
about ten feet and ran into a woman exposing herself in the middle of
the conference hall. Only Las Vegas could bring porn stars and Janet
Jackson nipple-busters so close. (We're Martin's aides kept him away
form the thigh-highs, frilly undies and leather boots.)
The Chairman – a huge improvement over chief Janet Jackson nipple
shielder Michael Powell – tossed out the party line on most subjects.
He called for a speedier broadband rollout, vowed to make VoIP
companies meet landline safety standards and urged consumers to
embrace digital TV. You've heard all these messages in the past.
What you may not be familiar with is the FCC's intense fear that
media companies or the telephone companies will wall off content and
internet services from certain classes of customers. While not
perfectly clear about the issue at hand, Martin seems to think the
internet will be divided up and with different classes of content
walled off from consumers.
"(I would) be concerned if you talked about network providers
blocking access to content that consumers want," he said.
Service providers should be free to charge different amounts for
varying bandwidth, but they should not be allowed to cordon off
content from consumers, Martin said.
[snip]
Weblog at: <http://weblog.warpspeed.com>
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