The end of the Internet?

Submitted by acohill on Tue, 02/14/2006 - 11:27

I've borrowed the title of Jeff Chester's article in The Nation. Chester raises alarm bells about the plans of the incumbent broadband providers to create walled gardens that give them near monopoly control over what their subscribers can do and access via their broadband connections.

With the encouragement of network equipment giant Cisco, these companies are beginning to plan for massive snooping into every packet of data that flows in and out of our computers. Using Google as an example, these broadband providers want to build massive dossiers about what you watch, who you call, and what Web sites you visit, so that they can sell advertising space to companies eager to sell you something. The broadband providers are ready to jump to IP-based TV, but not the free-ranging, free for all of the Internet. Instead, you will be able to access only that programming your broadband provider will let cross their network, and it will be packaged much the way Google packages everything--with space for ads.

And if a business wants to use its broadband connection to videoconference with a distant client? Well, that may not work at all, or it will work only by paying special fees. Without the counterbalance of public infrastructure, open to any broadband service provider, this will come to pass in many communities.