Digital Natives project

Does it make sense to talk about a distinctive global culture of young people - Digital Natives - who have only known life in a digital age? An academic research team - joining people from the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law School and the Research Center for Information Law at the University of St. Gallen in Switzerland - is working on a research project on Digital Natives. The focus of this research is on exploring the impacts of this generational demarcation between those born with these technologies and those who were not. See also Digital Natives session at Berkman@10. List of 9 myths floating through the ether about how young people use new technologies.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

US Digital media's impact on youth: Fresh research

(Net Family News)
"America's young people spend more time using media than they do on any single activity other than sleeping," according to The Future of Children, a joint project of Princeton University and the Brookings Institution. So we all need to know how our children and students use media - the Web, phones, videogames, instant messaging, music, video, TV, etc. - and how they affect their users. The just-released new issue of the project's journal Children and Electronic Media, published semi-annually, "looks at the best available evidence on whether and how exposure to different media forms is linked to child well-being."

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Protection_of_minors, Statistics

NZ - Research shows how Kiwi kids use the media

(BSA)
New research shows that New Zealand children are savvy media users and that while there has been an explosive growth of media devices in homes in the past few years, television remains the principal form of entertainment. The research, Seen and Heard, was carried out by Colmar Brunton for the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA). It involved interviewing more than 600 children aged between six and 13 and their primary caregivers. The focus of the research was how New Zealand children use and respond to media, including television, radio, the internet, and cell phones.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Statistics

UK - Vodafone offers unlimited web access

(BBC)
New monthly mobile price plans from Vodafone will offer unlimited internet access as a standard feature in a bid to meet the growing demand for access to email and social networking on the move. Facebook, Google and the BBC are the top three internet sites on the Vodafone Mobile Internet, according to the company.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Mobile_and_wireless, Social_networking

US - Lessig: Action urged to keep net neutral

(BBC)
Tough action is required by US regulators to protect the principles that have made the net so successful, a leading digital rights lawyer has said. Professor Lawrence Lessig was speaking at a public meeting to debate the tactics some net firms use to manage data traffic at busy times. He said the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) should act to keep all net traffic flowing equally.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

EU - More than 250 million Europeans regularly use Internet

(RAPID)
More than half of Europeans are now regular Internet users, 80% of them have broadband connections and 60% of public services in the EU are fully available online. Two thirds of schools and half of doctors make use of fast Internet connections, thanks to strong broadband growth in Europe. These are the findings of a Commission report on the results achieved so far with i2010, the EU's digital-led strategy for growth and jobs.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Statistics

Online games and the pre-teen killers

(Times)
Blog by David Hutchinson. I have been playing online with my Xbox. The game I've been playing the most is Call Of Duty 4, which has a 16+ rating. I wonder about the whole age rating thing. The Xbox has a plug-in headphone/microphone set. Many of the players appear to be boys who can't even be into their teenage years who shout insults in their pre-adolescent high pitches. I want parents to enforce game restriction ages, so I can enjoy an evening gaming and even if I still come last, at least it will be last among my peers.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Rating_and_filtering

Google sees surge in Web use on hot mobile phones

(Reuters)
Google has seen an acceleration of Internet activity among mobile phone users in recent months since the company introduced faster Web services on selected phone models, fueling confidence the mobile Internet era is at hand. Early evidence showing sharp increases in Internet usage on phones, not just computers, has emerged from services Google has begun offering in recent months on Blackberry e-mail phones, Nokia devices for multimedia picture and video creators and business professionals and the Apple iPhone, the world's top Web search company said.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Mobile_and_wireless

EU - Mobile Internet Usage In Europe To Surge Over The Next Five Years

(Forrester)
Thirty eight percent of cell phone users in Western Europe will use mobile Internet services by 2013 according to a new five year forecast by Forrester Research. The growth in adoption means that 125 million Europeans will access the Web regularly from their mobile phone ? triple the number that do so today. One of the key drivers will be the proliferation of 3.5G-enabled devices, which will overtake the number of GSM-only and GPRS phones by 2010. By 2013, one in four consumers will own a 3.5G-enabled phone. Forrester Research Analyst Pete Nuthall said "Deploying high-speed mobile networks and rolling out advanced handsets are not enough to spark demand - our data shows that less than half of 3G phone owners use the 3G capability on their phone. To drive the mobile Internet, operators will need to push flat-rate data plans, increase the number of relevant services and applications, and introduce new devices that provide a better user experience."

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Mobile_and_wireless

MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning

(MIT Press)
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation Series on Digital Media and Learning examines the effect of digital media tools on how people learn, network, communicate, and play, and how growing up with these tools may affect a person's sense of self, how they express themselves, and their ability to learn, exercise judgment, and think systematically. The full text of each volume in the Series is provided for free and open access thanks to the generous support of the MacArthur Foundation. Youth, Identity, and Digital Media; Learning Race and Ethnicity: Youth and Digital Media; Digital Young, Innovation, and the Unexpected; The Ecology of Games: Connecting Youth, Games, and Learning; Digital Media, Youth, and Credibility; Civic Life Online: Learning How Digital Media Can Engage Youth. See also John Palfrey's blog about Digital Young, Innovation, and the Unexpected

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

Sorry, Boys, This Is Our Domain

(New York Times)
The prototypical computer whiz of popular imagination ? pasty, geeky, male ? has failed to live up to his reputation. Research shows that among the youngest Internet users, the primary creators of Web content (blogs, graphics, photographs, Web sites) are not misfits resembling the Lone Gunmen of "The X Files." On the contrary, the cyberpioneers of the moment are digitally effusive teenage girls.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

Phorm fires privacy row for ISPs

(Guardian)
Web users are up in arms over what they see as an invasion of privacy by a company that will track surfing patterns to serve targeted ads. See also Ad system 'will protect privacy' (BBC).

Labels: Data_protection_privacy, Internet_access_and_use

US - PBS Kids makes play for 3-year-olds online

(CNET News.com)
by Stefanie Olsen. PBS Kids unveiled a test version of an educational game site for kids age 3 to 6, in one of the first advertising-free efforts aimed at small children and their parents online. The Web site, called PBS Kids Play, is a subscription-based service that lets children play animated games with characters like Curious George and learn basic skills in reading, listening comprehension, and problem solving. Parents can log onto the site separately to view their child's progress on various educational games based on national standards

Labels: E-learning, Internet_access_and_use

Disruption after web cables cut

(BBC)
Firms across the Middle East, India and Bangladesh are experiencing disruption after undersea broadband cables were damaged between Egypt and Italy. India is home to an $11bn (£5.5bn) outsourcing industry, but UK firms say they have so far seen little impact. The disruption looks set to continue, with repairs to take another week, and after another broadband cable was cut between the UAE and Oman.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

CN - The internet in China

(Economist)
China will soon boast more internet users than any other country. But usage patterns inside China are different from those elsewhere. The internet fills gaps and provides what is unavailable elsewhere, particularly for young people. More than 70% of Chinese internet users are under 30, precisely the opposite of America, and there is enormous pent-up demand for entertainment, amusement and social interaction.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

EU - Reding distances herself from Sarkozy's Net tax

(IHT)
The European Union telecommunications commissioner, Viviane Reding, has distanced herself from a proposal by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France to impose a tax on Internet and mobile phone access, saying it might not be the best way to expand access to new media. At a conference in Munich, Reding said that the proposal ran contrary to her vision of a Europe where borderless and inexpensive access to Internet and cellphone networks was the standard.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Taxation

Grownups' encroachment

(AP)
Young people are increasingly uneasy about how much adults are moving in on their "technological turf"

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

CN - China Internet Population Tops 200 Million

(IDG)
China's Internet population stood at 210 million at the end of last year, up 53 percent from the same time in 2006 when there were 137 million, the China Internet Network Information Centre said in its semi-annual report on Internet use.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Statistics

Tim Berners-Lee Warns of 'Walled Gardens' for Mobile Internet

(New York Times)
On the opening day of Mobile Internet World in Boston, Tim Berners-Lee, the man credited with inventing the World Wide Web told a packed hall that the mobile Internet needs to be fully and completely the Internet, nothing more and nothing less. It needs to be free of central control, universal, and embodied in open standards. The title of his talk was "Escaping the Walled Garden: Growing the Mobile Web with Open Standards." The "walled garden" is the metaphor that describes today's cable TV and cellular data networks, where subscribers can only use devices authorized by the carrier, and can only access content and services authorized by the carrier, the exact opposite of the World Wide Web running over the IP-based Internet, which cell phone users access from their home and work PCs.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

US - Parent and Teen Internet Use

(Pew Internet & American Life Project)
Parents today are less likely to say that the internet has been a good thing for their children than they were in 2004. However, this does not mean there was a corresponding increase in the amount of parents who think the internet has been harmful to their children. Instead, the biggest increase has been in the amount of parents who do not think the internet has had an effect on their children one way or the other. Fully, 87% of parents of teenagers are online - at least 17% more than average adults. Parents check up on and regulate their teens' media use, not just in terms of the internet, but with television and video games as well. However, those rules lean slightly more towards the content of the media rather than the time spent with the media device.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Statistics, Video_games

UK - Ofcom looks to future of fast net

(BBC)
Regulator Ofcom has added its voice to the growing debate about how the UK should roll out super-fast broadband. It has launched a consultation, running until December, to probe ways to keep UK net services up to speed with those of other nations. Current broadband speeds have a natural limit which are unlikely to satisfy growing consumer demand for bandwidth. see also Ofcom opens door for 10 times faster broadband connections (Guardian).

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

UK - A call for Net neutrality debate

(CNET News)
Web's global nature makes it essential for U.K. and Europe to discuss Net neutrality, says British Computer Society president. Professor Nigel Shadbolt said that, because so much of the Internet's content is derived from the U.S., the U.K. and Europe would be affected by any Net neutrality-related decisions made across the Atlantic. Because Internet users in the U.S. tend to have a smaller range of ISPs to choose from than do users in the U.K., the consensus in the U.K. has been that Net neutrality is a U.S.-centric debate.

Labels: Information_society_and_Internet_policy, Internet_access_and_use

BE - ISP claims court ruling will force it into 'illegal' behaviour

(OUT-LAW News)
A Belgian court ruling would force internet service providers into conducting "invisible and illegal" checks on internet users' actions, according to Belgian ISP Scarlet, who were recently ordered by a Belgian court to block its users from engaging in illegal file-sharing. It has now lodged an appeal against that ruling. "This measure is nothing else than playing Big Brother on the Internet,'' said Scarlet managing director. "If we don't challenge it today, we leave the door open to permanent, and invisible and illegal, checks of personal data."

Labels: Consumer_protection, Copyright_trademarks_and_patents, Data_protection_privacy, Internet_access_and_use

US - Web ad blocking may not be (entirely) legal

(CNET News)
Advertising-supported companies have long turned to the courts to squelch products that let consumers block or skip ads: it happened in the famous lawsuit against the VCR in 1979 and again with ReplayTV in 2001. Tomorrow's legal fight may be over Web browser add-ons that let people avoid advertisements.

Labels: Copyright_trademarks_and_patents, Internet_access_and_use, Rating_and_filtering

US - Justice Department backing for two-tier internet

(BBC News)
The US Justice Department has said that internet service providers should be allowed to charge for priority traffic. The agency said it was opposed to "network neutrality", the idea that all data on the net is treated equally. The comments put the agency at odds with companies such as Microsoft and Google, who have called for legislation to guarantee equal access to the net.

Labels: Information_society_and_Internet_policy, Internet_access_and_use, Open_source_open_access

File-sharers forced to play fair

(BBC)
Researchers have found a way to enforce good manners on file-sharing networks by treating bandwidth as a currency. The team has created a peer-to-peer system called Tribler in which selfless sharers earn faster upload and download speeds but leechers are penalised. Overlaid on Tribler is social networking technology that helps to police the system and encourage fair sharing. Tribler has already caught the attention of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which is trying to create a standardised internet broadcasting system across Europe.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

UK - Briton held over wireless broadband 'theft'

(Reuters)
A 39-year-old Briton has been arrested on suspicion of using someone else's wireless Internet connection without permission, police said on Wednesday. Officers spotted the man using a laptop as he sat on a wall outside a house in Chiswick, West London. He told officers he had browsed the Internet via an unsecured broadband link from a nearby house, Scotland Yard said. He was arrested and later released on police bail to November 11 pending further inquiries. See also Police: Wi-Fi arrest not part of a crackdown (ZDNet UK).

Labels: Computer_crime, Internet_access_and_use, Mobile_and_wireless

UK - Britain enjoying 'digital boom'

(BBC)
The net, mobile phones and MP3 players are revolutionising how Britons spend their time, says Ofcom's annual report. It reveals that older media such as TV, radio and even DVDs are being abandoned in favour of more modern technology. Surprisingly, it also shows that women, in some age groups, are the dominant web users and older web users spend more time online than any group. Among children it showed that web and mobile phone use is growing at the expense of video games. See also Mobile phones 'eroding landlines' and More than half of UK homes have broadband (vnunet.com).

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Statistics, Video_games

UK - Internet groups warn BBC over iPlayer plans

(BBC)
Some of the largest broadband providers in the UK are threatening to "pull the plug" from the BBC's new iPlayer unless the corporation contributes to the cost of streaming its videos over the internet. The likes of Tiscali, BT and Carphone Warehouse are all growing concerned that the impact of hundreds of thousands of consumers watching BBC programmes on its iPlayer ? which allows viewers to watch shows over the internet ? will place an intolerable strain on their networks. Some of the companies involved have told the BBC that they will consider limiting the bandwidth available to iPlayer ? a process known as traffic shaping. The measure would limit the number of consumers who could access the iPlayer at any one time.

Labels: Convergence, Internet_access_and_use

US - Social Sites Aim at Users Too Young for MySpace

(Washington Post)
Disney has announced the acquisition of Club Penguin, a virtual world for children that's been around less than two years but has grown to 12 million registered users, largely without marketing. Disney executives said the deal, valued at as much as $700 million depending on the company's performance, won't result in changes to the Club Penguin site, which requires parental permission for membership and doesn't have advertising. But the deal has prompted child advocates to ask whether kids are helped or harmed by exposure to the Web. There are a growing number of sites that claim to offer entertainment and education for children. Disney said it wants to invest in sites where parents can be assured of their children's safety against adult content and contact from strangers.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Protection_of_minors, Social_networking

UK - Britons misled over broadband speeds, says Which?

(Guardian)
There is a huge gap between the broadband speeds providers are advertising and those that users are able to achieve at home, research by Which? showed. Which? claims that while many companies advertise speeds of up to 8Mbps (megabits per second) or faster, consumers are achieving an average speed of just 2.7Mbps, while some have experienced speeds as low as 0.09Mbps.

Labels: Consumer_protection, Internet_access_and_use

US - Peer-to-peer networks can pose a "national security threat"

(CNET News)
The US Congress really doesn't get tech. Politicians charged that peer-to-peer networks can pose a "national security threat" because they enable federal employees to share sensitive or classified documents accidentally from their computers.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Security_and_encryption

'$100 laptop' production begins

(BBC)
Five years after the concept was first proposed, the so-called $100 laptop is poised to go into mass production. Hardware suppliers have been given the green light to ramp-up production of all of the components needed to build millions of the low-cost machines. See One Laptop Per Child.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

OECD - Global broadband prices revealed

(BBC)
Broadband users in 30 of the world's most developed countries are getting greatly differing speeds and prices. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) report says 60% of its member countries net users are now on broadband. The report said countries that had switched to fibre networks had the best speeds at the lowest prices. See OECD Communications Outlook 2007

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Statistics

Etiquette pitfalls in the social web of wannabe friends

(Times)
The huge expansion of online social networking sites has opened up an etiquette minefield, complete with snubs, awkward faux pas and ample opportunity to give and take offence. With networking websites such as Facebook and MySpace expanding expedientially, the rise of cyber friendships has brought with it a new set of social niceties, conventions and potential embarrassments.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Social_networking

EU - Commission fines Telefónica over €151 million

(RAPID)
The European Commission has fined the Spanish incumbent telecoms operator Telefónica €151 875 000 for a very serious abuse of its dominant position in the Spanish broadband market. Telefónica imposed unfair prices in the form of a margin squeeze between the wholesale prices it charged to competitors and the retail prices it charged to its own customers. In so doing, Telefónica weakened its competitors, making their continued presence and growth difficult: competitors were forced to make losses if they wanted to match Telefónica's retail prices. With high wholesale costs and weakened retail competition on the broadband market, Spanish consumers pay 20% more than the EU-15 average for broadband access. The Spanish broadband penetration rate is 20% below EU-15 average, and its growth is nearly 30% below that of the EU-15. see also frequently asked questions and Press conference on Telefónica decision – introductory remarks Neelie Kroes European Commissioner for Competition Policy, Press conference, Brussels, 4th July 2007.

Labels: Competition, Internet_access_and_use

Two-tiered net could be coming

(BBC)
Net providers (ISPs) may start charging some websites for faster access to customers, a report has predicted; It could create a 'two-tiered internet' which, while making money for providers would risk alienating consumers, Jupiter Research said. ISPs currently operate on incredibly tight margins in order to offer cheap broadband deals to the public. One way of creating a new revenue stream would be to supply faster, prioritised access to a select group of websites willing to pay.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

Overdoing it?

(Economist)
Internet-service providers are worried that new online-video services, such as a television-over-internet service called Joost, will overload their networks. Many ISPs have taken the less drastic measure of "throttling" the download speeds available to their heaviest users at peak times, which are between 4pm and midnight - in other words, prime-time for television. Virgin Media, a British ISP that recently introduced throttling, offers a maximum download speed of 20 megabits per second, but this is reduced once a three-gigabyte limit has been exceeded. If the connection is running at full capacity, that will take 20 minutes.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

Home truths about telecoms

(Economist)
Mobile operators and handset-makers are turning to social scientists, and in particular to anthropologists, the better to understand how telephones are used. Some of their findings are quite unexpected. A typical user spends 80% of his or her time communicating with just four other people. Despite much talk of "convergence" within the industry, people are in fact using different communications technologies in distinct and divergent ways. Even when people are given unlimited cheap or free calls, the number and length of calls does not increase significantly. Private communications are invading the workplace. Migrants are the most advanced users of communications technology.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Mobile_and_wireless

EU - Why Greece needs broadband and why it needs it now ? a European perspective

(RAPID)
Speech by Viviane Reding, Member of the European Commission responsible for Information Society and Media. The International Conference "Exploring the Global Dynamics of Broadband Internet", Athens, 1 June 2007.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

New software can identify you from your online habits

(NewScientist)
If you thought you could protect your privacy on the web by lying about your personal details, think again. In online communities at least, entering fake details such as a bogus name or age may no longer prevent others from working out exactly who you are. That is the spectre raised by new research conducted by Microsoft. The computing giant is developing software that could accurately guess your name, age, gender and potentially even your location, by analysing telltale patterns in your web browsing history. But experts say the idea is a clear threat to privacy - and may be illegal in some places.

Labels: Data_protection_privacy, Internet_access_and_use

Internet Engineering Task Force approves antispam technique

(CNET News)
Spammers, phishers and other Internet bottom-feeders, be warned. A key Internet standards body gave preliminary approval on Tuesday to a powerful technology designed to detect and block fake e-mail messages. It's called DomainKeys Identified Mail, and it promises to give Internet users the best chance so far of stanching the seemingly endless flow of fraudulent junk e-mail.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Spam

Study Finds Europeans Dominate Second Life

(Reuters)
Virtual reality world Second Life was born in the United States, but 61 percent of its active residents are Europeans, a study by research firm comScore said. The number of active German residents exceeds the number of active residents in the United States, although growth rates in the U.S. are the highest worldwide.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Statistics

Global net use makes rapid rise

(BBC)
The net is helping to close the digital divide between industrialised nations, suggests a report. The annual e-readiness rankings by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) shows Asian and African nations catching up with big net users such as Denmark. The report says this is partly due to broadband which is now cheap and affordable in almost every nation. But it warns that much hard work remains to be done to get the best out of the net for citizens and companies.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Statistics

CA - Majority of Canadian teens in survey report being bullied online

(CBC)
Cyber-bullying is disturbingly common among Canadian teens, with a majority who responded to an online survey saying they have been bullied online, according to a report. The report, Cyber-bullying: Our Kids' New Reality, drew from nearly 2,500 responses to a survey conducted by Kids Help Phone between Dec. 20, 2006, and Jan. 20, 2007. Kids Help Phone and Bell Canada released the report in a handful of Canadian cities.

Labels: Cyber-bullying, Internet_access_and_use, Statistics

Call for blogging code of conduct

(BBC)
The support for a blogger hounded by death threats has intensified with some high profile web experts calling for a code of conduct in the blogosphere. Kathy Sierra, the female blogger at the centre of the row has been shocked to discover that hers is not an isolated incident. See also Call for a Blogger's Code of Conduct (Tim O'Reilly).

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Self-regulation_Codes_of_Conduct

One Laptop Per Child manufacturer to sell $200 laptop in developed countries

(Ars Technica)
Quanta, the company manufacturing the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project's XO laptops, plans to begin selling low-cost budget mobile computers for $200 later this year. The company plans to leverage the underlying technologies associated with OLPC's XO laptop to produce laptop computers that are significantly less expensive than conventional laptops. The OLPC project hopes to bring inexpensive Linux-based laptops to the education market in developing countries.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use, Mobile_and_wireless

Tim Berners-Lee on Net Neutrality: "This is serious"

(Lawrence Lessig)
One clue to this Net Neutrality debate is to watch what kind of souls are on each side of the debate. The pro-NN contingent is filled with the people who actually built the Net - from Vint Cerf to Google to eBay - and those who profit from the competition enabled by the Net - e.g., Microsoft. The anti-NN contingent is filled with the entities that either never got the Net, or fought like hell to control it ? telecom, and cable companies. see also Tim Berners-Lee blog.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

Net video explosion triggers traffic jam worries

(CNET News.com) More than 60 percent of Internet traffic is being taken up by peer-to-peer swaps, and about 60 percent of those swaps involve video content. And there is a growing amount of legitimate content from companies such as Apple Computer, MovieLink and Google Video. Big ISPS such as AT&T have already argued that they should be able to charge companies such as Google or Yahoo for an extra tier of service, ensuring their content arrives swiftly at its destination. Web companies and civil libertarians have bitterly criticized this idea, calling for "network neutrality" that doesn't relegate other content to a slow lane, or pass along costs to consumers.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

US - Vint Cerf condemns two-tier internet

(The Register)
Vint Cerf told Congress that ideas proposed by telecoms companies for a two-tier internet were fatally flawed and, if necessary, legislation should be passed to make it impossible. Giving evidence to the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation committee, Cerf called for a 'net neutrality' law to force broadband providers to give equal access to any website or applicahttp://www.blogger.com/post-edit.g?blogID=6959&postID=113957693043920975tion. see also The End of the Internet? by Jeff Chester and Senators Mull an Internet With Restrictions by Celia Viggo Wexler and Dawn Holian (The Nation).

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

CA - Telus Breaks Net Providers Cardinal Rule

(Michael Geist)
Given the importance of the neutrality principle, it came as a shock to learn last week that Telus, Canada's second largest telecommunications company, was actively blocking access to Voices for Change, a website supporting the Telecommunications Workers Union.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use

US - Net Neutrality: Let's Look Before We Leap

US - Net Neutrality: Let's Look Before We Leap (NTIA)
Remarks of Assistant Secretary of Commerce Nancy J. Victory to the Progress and Freedom Foundation Conference. June 27, 2003. see also FCC official: No need to regulate ISPs (Reuters)
There is no need for the Federal Communications Commission to adopt rules to address concerns that high-speed Internet service providers will favor some Web sites over others, an agency official said .The FCC has been debating whether such rules are necessary amid fears that consumers could be blocked from going to Web sites that do not have a business relationship with their ISP, whether it's a cable company or a telecommunications company. 'It is not entirely clear why a regulatory openness mandate is such an imperative right now,' said Kenneth Ferree, head of the FCC's media bureau, which regulates cable operators. 'There seem to be powerful market incentives already for broadband providers to make their systems consumer-friendly, that is, to ensure their networks are largely open,' Ferree told the Progress & Freedom Foundation conference.

Labels: Internet_access_and_use