Consumers speak out against Internet control
On the heels of the story we ran about BellSouth earlier this week, the nonprofit Consumers Union released survey results showing that Internet users are worried about their online freedoms.
The issue at stake here is what's known as "network neutrality," industry lingo for keeping all facets of the Internet as free and accessible as possible for the good of the general public. And the results of the poll, sponsored by Consumers Union, advocacy group Consumer Federation of America, and nonprofit media reform group Free Press, show that consumers don't think companies are all that interested in keeping the 'net neutral.
Before reading the results, keep in mind that the two consumer groups involved in crafting the survey are vehemently opposed to endeavors like BellSouth's consideration of charging content providers like MovieLink a fee for special access to supercharged broadband speed and priority moving across the phone company's network.
Their argument, more detailed in our story, is that BellSouth and other phone companies will stymie online competition and cause the consumer to pay more for downloads if a fee system is instituted. For their part, BellSouth officials say it doesn't plan to block any providers and won't, itself, pass along costs to consumers. But, the phone company says, content providers can choose whether to pass consumers the extra costs BellSouth might charge companies.
More than 75 percent of the random 3,000 households pilled in November were worried about this. Nearly that many respondents are skeptical about phone companies' promises not to block or hinder Internet access to certain sites - the ones that might not pay fees, for example. Actually, 54 percent of the people polled want Congress to bar Internet providers from giving some companies a leg up and pushing others down.
One of the most interesting survey findings is that consumers just don't have high expectations for cable and phone companies. Though more than two-thirds of respondents to the survey think these companies need to stick to net neutrality, only 47 percent believe that would actually happen.
Representatives at the consumers groups not only are worried that consumers could pay twice if phone companies and other Internet service providers instate a fee system. These consumer advocates are focusing on the bigger issue of whether a company like BellSouth or AT&T might decide to enter an agreement with one online company and then slow or block its competitors' access to consumers. That could force consumers to use a Yahoo instead of a Google or a Barnes & Noble instead of a Borders online, if access to one is much quicker and simpler than to the other.
This net neutrality debate has been bubbling for a while, but it's getting more attention as phone companies talk fee structures. Consumer advocacy groups basically seem to be worried that fees are just one more step toward limited or preferential Internet access and away from net neutrality.
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