Slow Down Lane for the Internet Highway?

If the phone companies have their way, some sites would slow down to a crawl when loading on your browser. While others who pay an internet toll will be zooming along in the right lane. Well, the left lane if you are in Britain.

What this will lead to is a form of online censorship. Who wants to wait for sites to load?

News Channel 3 in the Hampton Roads is reporting:

"'Allowing broadband carriers to control what people see and do online would fundamentally undermine the principles that have made the Internet such a success," Vinton Cerf told a Senate committee recently. Cerf, who played a key role in building the Internet, is now the "Chief Internet Evangelist" at Google Inc."

Personally, I dread the day when service providers govern who goes fast or slow. I believe the internet should be as free as possible. When sites are handicapped, it will cripple the creative thrust that now happens on the internet. Its all about how to make a dollar at our expense.

If this does happen expect to see more: pay to see and use content. This may salvage some media giants like the New York Times who offer a price for premium content , but it will be at everyone's expense.

I refuse to pay for premium content, and I hope America refuses to accept the toll lane idea that phone companies are promoting.

photo by bob