I just got off a media conference call with Google CEO Eric Schmidt and Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg.
They announced a new policy recommendation that would kill the Internet as we know it, if implemented by FCC Chair Julius Genachowski and other policy makers.
The Google/Verizon deal (also posted online) basically says:
Google, a company that I've long admired and currently hold thousands of dollars of stock in, just "went evil."
That's why over 300,000 Americans have signed an open letter telling Google "don't be evil" -- protect Net Neutrality and the Internet's level playing field. You can sign here.
This letter was launched last week by 5 groups that use the Internet to organize millions of Americans around issues, and are now using the Internet to save the Internet itself -- Free Press, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, MoveOn, Credo Action, and ColorOfChange.
Why did Google cut this absurd deal, one that dramatically hurts its credibility in the online space?
We know why Verizon did it. Verizon is a decrepit old company that made massive investments in old landline technology and is coming face-to-face with market irrelevance. In a properly functioning marketplace, Verizon would soon crumble and die and be replaced by modern-day innovators. The only way for them to stay in business is to block innovation and to put tollbooths on the Internet that are in nobody's interest but Verizon's and other decrepit companies like AT&T.
There is no reason in the world for Google, which has made smart investments in the future, to find common ground with Verizon on the issue of Internet openness. None. Zero. Zilch. Today's deal was unneeded, uncalled for, and incompatible with Google's "don't be evil" mantra.
Google's decision to cut a deal with Verizon wreaks of either impatience or fear. Either Google wasn't willing to wait for the Verizons of the world to crumble and die -- and therefore moved it's own business development timeline up 5 or 10 years at the expense of the entire American public. Or, Google feared doing the dirty work that comes with being a leader -- despite launching a "Google Fiber for Communities" program that competes head-to-head with the decrepit incumbents, Google feared actually having to fulfill their potential to defeat the bad guys.
So, they cut a deal with the bad guys. And they're now asking the public to accept two Internet experiences -- a great experience for the old Internet that will soon cease to exist, and an experience filled with discrimination and lack of a level playing field for the entire future of the Internet.
This is a moment for good people to stand up and be counted.
Click here to join over 300,000 Americans in telling Google: Don't be evil.
Then, help save the Internet by sending this link to your friends and asking them to join you in getting involved.
Follow Adam Green on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Adamgreenonline
First of all, I disagree that wireless is going to completely do away with wirebound internet. There is just too much of a bandwidth advantage to wire/fiber. If you want to move a lot of data inexpensively wire/fiber is still it.
What this has to do is with Cloud Computing in general and Google Apps in particular. Cloud computing is very bandwidth sensitive. No quantity of efficient programming or front or back end processing can make up for a slow pipe in cloud computing.
Google's angle is to get their cloud computing platform, and the next generation of Google Apps, treated as a 'differentiated service'. That means it will have an insurmountable advantage over any cloud computing system that has to fight with everything else on the internet for bandwidth. So Google gets to own cloud computing by getting Verizon to declare it a 'differentiated service'. But more than that Google has made no secret of Cloud Computing applications being the core of getting Chrome OS onto desktop devices. And it would seem a relatively simple step to also make Android the preferred platform of Google cloud computing applications. So Google gets to own the Desktop OS, the Mobile OS, and all of the cloud computing applications running on them. Or in other words Google owns everything.
http://ipower.ning.com/video/google-verizons-pact-to-end?xg_source=msg_mes_network
Btw,... just the fact that Google lied about these negotiations in the days preceding this deal's announcement is reason enough to not trust anything they have to say about how this is supposed to 'save net neutrality'.
"Feel the POWER floooowing through you!"
I just sent you an email to the info@prog... address.
please look for it. I think we can help each other. I've been looking for someone to help me with a project that will empower the public and independent candidates, come election time. It looks like your org and myself share the same objectives. Please check your inbox for it. the subject line is: ATTN: Adam Green
Tj
There seem to be two misconceptions here. First is confusion between provision of Internet access to end users and Internet backbone service. "Wireless broadband" is for end-user access -- its range is only up to ~30 miles. That's not going to carry traffic state-to-state, let alone country-to-country. It's unlikely to supplant wired end-user services, especially fiber-optic, which can provide speeds up to 1 Gbit/sec, ten times the wireless speed of up to 100 Mbit/sec.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wireless_broadband
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fiber_to_the_x
http://itlaw.wikia.com/wiki/Internet_backbone_provider
http://itlaw.wikia.com/wiki/Backbone
Second is whether Verizon is dying. (I have no stake in Verizon: not my ISP nor cell provider nor do I own stock nor have I ever worked for them.) Verizon is a major Internet backbone carrier -- 3rd in # routes after TWTC and Bellsouth. Verizon is also a wireless broadband provider and a cell carrier. They *are* providing the service that is touted as up-and-coming.
http://www.cidr-report.org/as2.0/
http://www.isp-planet.com/resources/backbones/vz_business.html
An attack on these companies as viable businesses just sounds petulant -- it's not going to help protect net neutrality.
Look,I am as liberal as anyone but please know what you are talking about.
The core roots of the internet will always remain. These huge corporations may be on a power trip but they are not stupid. Their lifeblood is their main focus all day every day.
LONG LIVE ALL PEOPLE! ™
I was thinking about this the last couple of days. Google has done a brilliant job of insinuating itself into almost every aspect of internet life.
I'm really annoyed at Youtube for selling to Google...and there are indeed alternatives to it.
I suppose it's time for some reorganisation.
The core roots of the internet will always remain. These huge corporations may be on a power trip but they are not stupid. Their lifeblood is their main focus all day every day.
LONG LIVE ALL PEOPLE! ™