Posted by Alan Davidson, Washington
Policy Counsel, DC office
Congress is holding a hearing tomorrow, Wednesday, November 8th, on
"network neutrality" and a big new telecommunications
bill affecting the Internet. Vint Cerf, our net neutrality guru,
was unable to testify because of a
href="http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2005/11/standing-on-shoulders-of-this-giant.html" >
little awards ceremony at the White House (congratulations,
Vint!), but here is his letter to the Hill outlining our concerns.
Microsoft will be testifying for our side, demonstrating that
inside the Beltway, we agree on a lot.
You can follow the
href="http://energycommerce.house.gov/108/Hearings/11092005hearing1706/hearing.htm" >
proceedings here — and we hope you do. This bill could
fundamentally alter the fabulously successful end-to-end Internet.
November 8, 2005
The Honorable Joe Barton
Chairman
Committee on Energy and Commerce
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
The Honorable John D. Dingell
Ranking Member
Committee on Energy and Commerce
U.S. House of Representatives
Washington, D.C. 20515
Dear Chairman Barton and Ranking Member Dingell,
I appreciate the inquiries by your staff about my availability to
appear before the Committee and to share Google’s views about draft
telecommunications legislation and the issues related to
"network neutrality." These are matters of great
importance to the Internet and Google welcomes the Committee’s hard
work and attention. The hearing unfortunately conflicts with
another obligation, and I am sorry I will not be able to attend.
(Along with my colleague Robert Kahn, I am honored to be receiving
the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Wednesday at the White House
for our work in creating the Internet protocol TCP/IP.)
Despite my inability to participate in the planned hearing in
person, I hope that you will accept some brief observations about
this legislation.
The remarkable social impact and economic success of the Internet
is in many ways directly attributable to the architectural
characteristics that were part of its design. The Internet was
designed with no gatekeepers over new content or services. The
Internet is based on a layered, end-to-end model that allows people
at each level of the network to innovate free of any central
control. By placing intelligence at the edges rather than control
in the middle of the network, the Internet has created a platform
for innovation. This has led to an explosion of offerings – from
VOIP to 802.11x wi-fi to blogging – that might never have evolved
had central control of the network been required by design.
My fear is that, as written, this bill would do great damage to the
Internet as we know it. Enshrining a rule that broadly permits
network operators to discriminate in favor of certain kinds of
services and to potentially interfere with others would place
broadband operators in control of online activity. Allowing
broadband providers to segment their IP offerings and reserve huge
amounts of bandwidth for their own services will not give consumers
the broadband Internet our country and economy need. Many people
will have little or no choice among broadband operators for the
foreseeable future, implying that such operators will have the
power to exercise a great deal of control over any applications
placed on the network.
As we move to a broadband environment and eliminate century-old
non-discrimination requirements, a lightweight but enforceable
neutrality rule is needed to ensure that the Internet continues to
thrive. Telephone companies cannot tell consumers who they can
call; network operators should not dictate what people can do
online.
I am confident that we can build a broadband system that allows
users to decide what websites they want to see and what
applications they want to use – and that also guarantees high
quality service and network security. That network model has and
can continue to provide economic benefits to innovators and
consumers — and to the broadband operators who will reap the
rewards for providing access to such a valued network.
We appreciate the efforts in your current draft to create at least
a starting point for net neutrality principles. Google looks
forward to working with you and your staff to draft a bill that
will maintain the revolutionary potential of the broadband
Internet.
Thank you for your attention and for your efforts on these
important issues.
Sincerely,
Vinton Cerf
Chief Internet Evangelist
Google Inc.
Tags: , Alan, Counsel, Davidson, DC, policy, Posted, Washington
