Verizon plays Evil Monopoly game

Business Week has a big article that begins: Is Verizon a Network Hog? The telecommunications giant wants to devote most of its capacity to its own traffic, to Internet companies' dismay. Synopsis: legendary comp-sci guru Vinton Cerf, now a VP at Google, wrote to Congress that major telecom companies could take actions to jeopardize the future of the Internet.

While antitrust lawsuits against good ol' Verizon have already been filed, Verizon's newest filing is the most deeply troubling, one that every American has got to be concerned about. Because new documents filed with the FCC underscore that Verizon is reserving 80% of its network capacity for its future television services to be carried over its fiber-optic network. Everything else is relegated to the slow lane.

Congress broke up AT&T, f/k/a Ma Bell, in the mid-1980s, around ten years after initial court filings began in 1974. What a difference two decades can make, huh? In 2006, AT&T has glued itself to SBC, and Verizon is now a big monster whose voice was f/k/a the Evil Empire's Jedi warrior in a black plastic hat. AT&T wants you to love it again; I even saw an ad in Chinese the other night extolling how wonderful it is. (If you've ever called AT&T for customer service, then you know in any language how much it sucks.)

What can you do? Well, next Tuesday, February 7, there's a big hearing in the Senate about telecom reform. Need a talking point? Here's one: "The Bells have designed a broadband system that squeezes out the public Internet in favor of services or content they want to provide," says Paul Misener, vice-president for global policy at Amazon.com. Want more freebies and giveaways for the multinational giants? Then keep your mouth shut. Otherwise, call Senator Schumer and Senator Clinton right now and let them know you are concerned about anti-competitive practices at the companies formerly known as Baby Bells. Even though the CEO of Vonage is going to testify at that hearing, your senators need to hear from you. So do it now, before your 'Net connection slows down and your Vonage (or other VoIP) crawls to a halt.

Tags:   alternative tentacles, broadband, business week, content delivery, copper, dsl, evil monopoly, phone line, verizon, voip, vonage, wired

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Posted on 2/2/2006 ( Permanent Link )
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