Vejam mais sobre o debate da neutralidade da Internet na Technology Review: Emerging Technologies and their Impact:

“…Transformations in the telegraph industry in the mid-19th century provide one scenario for what can happen when owners of large networks extend their influence. During the Civil War, Western Union began controlling telegraph trunk lines across the country, and, by acquiring competing companies, achieved a near-monopoly by 1866. Rivals continued to rise up — even the U.S. Post Office stepped forward, proposing to run telegraph lines to underserved communities along postal roads. But Western Union simply bought up its rivals, and manipulated prices to undercut popular and Congressional support for a postal telegraph system. While the company continued to expand its telegraph network throughout the 1870s and 1880s, it focused on serving business customers, forgoing innovations that would have made it more affordable for the press or private citizens to communicate by telegraph.

‘There does seem to me to be a historical analogy’ with the current telecommunications marketplace, says Paul Starr, a social historian at Princeton University, who wrote about telegraphy and other early forms of telecommunications in his 2005 book, The Creation of the Media. ‘In both cases, the incumbents that dominate networks have tried to exploit their existing position rather than innovating.’

The current net neutrality debate stems from a similar tension between open innovation and monopolistic control. Under a principle dating to the beginning of the Internet, all bits are created equal. Your friend’s blog is delivered to you over the same connections, and at the same speed, as the home page of the New York Times; and startups have the same ability to reach potential customers as big business.

But the companies that own the main Internet connections in the United States, including AT&T, Verizon, the other Baby Bells, and cable TV providers, want to offer businesses access to faster, private connections for a premium.”

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How would that change the way the average Web surfer experiences the Internet? Donovan gives one example: “In a world where the Internet looked like the mobile phone world, Google might be really fast on Comcast’s cable Internet service, but would no longer be a ‘premium’ experience on a network where they don’t have a commercial arrangement.”

Vejam mais no link… e no site Save the Internet criado para defender a neutralidade da rede.