Proposed media merger would threaten open Internet access

Comcast Corporation’s recent bid to purchase Time Warner Cable for $45 billion is the latest development in a toxic trend that has seen mass media consolidate to the point of being completely controlled by only a few massive corporations.

If it goes through, the merger between the two largest cable providers would create a conglomerate with a virtual monopoly in 19 of the 20 largest markets in the United States, a company with enormous power over the content that the public views.

More troubling still is the threat that this new telecommunications giant would pose to “network neutrality.” A founding principle of the Internet, network neutrality is a maxim that has governed online activity since before the creation of the web. In short, it states that no data shall be given preferential treatment– whether it originated from an international corporation or an individual.

The telecom industry (companies that own and operate the physical wiring of the Internet like Comcast or Verizon) is actively seeking the end of net neutrality. Telecoms argue that they should be able to charge a premium to companies that profit from using their hardware, like Google and Facebook. If this policy comes into effect it would create a tiered system in which “premium” access to the Internet would come at a hefty fee–far beyond the means of small businesses and ordinary people– and those who can’t afford the premium would receive second- or third-rate Internet service.

Ryan Singel, a former editor for Wired, described in a recent article what that scenario might look like: “If your cable company now wants to slow down Netflix, it can. If it wants to make Skype calls slow, it can. If it wants to make streaming video from its services lightning fast and free from data caps, while slowing down YouTube and counting that data against your monthly allotment, it can do so.”

Comcast has agreed to not block competitors on its network or provide its own video products in higher quality. But that doesn’t mean that telecoms won’t try to in the future. For instance, the agreement came after a successful anti-net neutrality suit brought by Verizon against the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), where an appeals court in Washington D.C. struck down the FCC’s Open Internet Rules on the grounds that it illegally treats Internet Service Providers as regulated utilities.

In her book “Captive Audience: The Telecom Industry and Monopoly in the New Gilded Age,”(Yale University Press) Susan Crawford–a law professor who served as Special Assistant for Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy during the first Obama administration–argues convincingly that broadband Internet service should be treated as a utility, because it has replaced phone service as the most important communications utility.

“Truly high-speed wired Internet access is as basic to innovation, economic growth, social communication, and the country’s competitiveness as electricity was a century ago,” Crawford writes.

Because of exorbitant fees, millions of Americans still lack access to high speed Internet, and those who can afford access to broadband pay more for it than other nations in the developed world, but receive service that consistently ranks at the bottom of the list.

South Koreans, in stark contrast, enjoy the fastest and most plentiful internet on earth (for about $30 month), precisely because their government forced its public power utility and largest telecom industry to open up their networks to rivals.

If competition truly breeds innovation and efficiency, then it should be no surprise that we pay more and receive less–having handed over the reigns to a few giant companies, what other choice do we have?

“What this amounts to really is the cable-isation of the Internet,” former FCC Commissioner Michael Copp told Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman in a recent interview. “We are doing irreparable damage to the opportunity-creating potential of the Internet.”

Our constitution was framed by men who believed that a free press is vital to the survival of democracy–net neutrality is this principle in its 21st century incarnation. Open Internet is sustainable but it requires vigilant oversight and firm regulation.

The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing for the merger of Comcast and Time Warner is scheduled for March 26.