Google and Verizon announced a joint proposal on Monday that would allow ISPs to offer premium content bundles over an unspecified global network — an unexpected gambit that would seem to call for separate and unequal internets.
The two companies say the guidelines would ensure that no internet traffic of kind is prioritized over other (with the exception of viruses, spam and the like). On the flipside, it would grant content companies looking to deliver services that require too much bandwidth for the regular internet to do so in return for payment, via a second set of pipes.
“There should be a new, enforceable prohibition against discriminatory practices,” reads part of their proposal, posted on both Verizon’s and Google’s websites. “For the first time, wireline broadband providers would not be able to discriminate against or prioritize lawful internet content, applications or services in a way that causes harm to users or competition”.
But the bombshell is the carrot that would convince ISPs to accede to this basic tennet of net neutrality. The call by two giants of the internet in the midst of an already contentious debate would at first glance seem more likely to exacerbate the discussion than bring it to a swifter conclusion, by suggesting that an entirely new information highway be built to accomodate a “fast lane”.
“Our proposal also includes safeguards to ensure that such online services must be distinguishable from traditional broadband Internet access services and are not designed to circumvent the rules,” it continues. “The FCC would also monitor the development of these services to make sure they don’t interfere with the continued development of internet access services”.
The first question, assuming this tale of two internets ever gets written: To what extent would an inherently more private network mingle with the public internet? Would it be like pay cable and satellite TV, which now provides some content that had previously been available on “free” TV, without killing broadcasting entirely? Or would it be like network television and syndication, which killed local station production and innovation?
In the here and now, however, the proposal does not include the paid prioritization of one company’s traffic over another – a victory for net neutrality proponents. But it does call for so-called “fast lanes” ISPs been clamoring for in ways even the two companies could not forsee, according to both Google president Eric Schmidt and Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg. Wired
