Qwest CEO: Net neutrality act is 'nuts'
Notebaert says telcos wouldn't try to block someone's service
Jeff Smith, Rocky Mountain News
Published January 12, 2007 at midnight
Qwest CEO Dick Notebaert said Thursday proposed Internet neutrality legislation is "nuts," and called it a "preposterous charge" that a telecommunications company would ever block or degrade somebody's Internet service.
Notebaert made his comments at an Internet conference at the University of Denver's Cable Center, hosted by the Center for the New West.
Congress is again considering so-called "Net neutrality" legislation, which supporters say is needed to ensure that the Internet remains open and nondiscriminatory.
The bill, which would prohibit telecommunications carriers from offering preferential treatment to certain content providers, has had bipartisan support. But it is given more of a chance to succeed now that Democrats control Congress.
Without such a law, proponents argue, carriers will have too much power in controlling Internet traffic, and certain Internet content providers could be driven out of business or forced to pay an exorbitant amount to compete. Consumers could find certain Web sites blocked or slower to get to.
"(The) reintroduction of the Internet Freedom Preservation Act marks another step toward ensuring the fate of the Internet lies in the hands of its users and not the hands of a few gatekeepers," Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said in a statement.
Supporters include giant content providers such as Microsoft, eBay and Google, consumer groups and even some Christian groups. They say the Internet is different from other industries because of its history as a free, open platform.
Telcos and cable companies such as AT&T, Qwest and Comcast counter that they, too, want the Internet to be open and would never block it. But they say customers such as an online movie service should have the choice in a free-enterprise system to pay an additional fee for "expedited" delivery of their content.
Notebaert argued that Congress must "cut through the hyperbole" and make a decision based on reason and reality.
"I'm actually pretty optimistic the ploy won't work," Notebaert said, "that logic will prevail."
He maintained that Net neutrality is supposed to be a solution, but first there needs to be a problem, and there isn't one.
"There's been no infractions, no abuses," he said, adding there are regulatory and legal remedies to deal with abuses should they arise.
Some of the 100 attendees at the conference challenged Notebaert. Several expressed concern about how carriers, because of their market power, already favor certain content on their home pages over others and could discriminate further in the future.
"I can't think of one case where we discriminated," Notebaert said.
"What created divestiture (of AT&T in 1984)?" asked one attendee, referring to the allegations of discrimination back then.
"Not proven, never guilty," Notebaert responded.
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