Advocates for a free Internet in New York and around the country have been holding hastily-called meetings to analyze a move by the FCC chairman that appears to threaten “net neutrality” by allowing some companies to offer higher speeds at higher prices.
The nation's top telecoms regulator is proposing to allow a pay-for-priority fast lane on the Internet for movies, music and other services to get to people's homes. It would allow broadband Internet service providers like Time Warner Cable to charge content providers like Netflix or ESPN higher prices for faster download speeds. Josh Levy of the nonprofit group Free Press calls it a "huge threat" to a free Internet. "The only way to stop it is to organize and to channel everybody’s anger and energy towards an effort to get the FCC to scrap those rules."
Between now and May 15th, when the Commission will formally act, some public interest groups plan to petition lawmakers and stage public protests.
