"First Amendment of the Internet"

With Net Neutrality now in the hands of the US Senate, the PR war on both sides is escalating. I saw a commercial from a group called TV 4 Us today accusing Google of benefiting from Net Neutrality. In return Save the Internet.com talks about the "Big Lies" of the other side. It also recently handed over a million email petitions to Capitol Hill supporting Net Neutrality.

The SF Chronicle has a nice graphic which explains how the Internet carries packets today, and how it would if we moved to a tiered Internet. The companion article explains that the long-haul backbone of the Internet has plenty of capacity. The "last mile" is where phone company DSL and high-speed cable provide more than 9 out of 10 broadband connections to home. These network gatekeepers want to guarantee some packets preferred delivery for a price.

Update: Andy Kessler argues both sides are fighting yesterday's battle. "We don't even know what new things are possible. Bandwidth is like putty in the hands of entrepreneurs--new regulations are cement." He is making the point from this post. The US is so far behind so many countries in bandwidth and mobile technology- that it's like we are arguing about tolls on a pot hole filled highway.