AT&T Defends Paid Prioritization Of Web Traffic
In a filing this week to the FCC, AT&T defended the idea of allowing businesses and others to pay to ensure faster access to their Web content, saying the Internet's key standard setting organization has supported the idea of paid prioritization and that it is being used today by businesses of all sizes.
In a letter Monday to the FCC, AT&T Senior Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Robert Quinn aimed to dispute claims from Free Press and other supporters of network neutrality, the idea of barring broadband providers from discriminating against content, that paid prioritization "is not taking place today, and, if permitted, would be a viable option only for a few select 'content giants that have deep enough pockets' to pay for it, to the exclusion of smaller and minority-owned businesses and non-profits," he wrote.
He added that "paid prioritization is expressly contemplated by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet standard-setting organization; it is widely available from multiple providers today; and, no less important, it is used by many businesses of all sizes."
Quinn argued that banning paid prioritization would be a "colossal mistake that would harm countless businesses and their customers."
Free Press Research Director S. Derek Turner countered that AT&T is trying to confuse people over the issue, saying the practice the company described in its letter to the FCC involves "businesses purchasing dedicated access lines in the enterprise broadband market," a practice the FCC open Internet proposal would permit. "This is a far cry from the harmful practice of paid prioritization that the FCC proposal would bar," Turner said in a news release.
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