Why Qwest, Rocky dislike Net neutrality
The Jan. 13 Rocky Mountain News editorial failed to provide readers with an adequate context for what the Net neutrality fight is all about. If giant corporations like Qwest are successful in their multimillion-dollar lobbying efforts to gut the Internet Freedom Protection Act, consumers and small businesses alike will suffer.
Currently, every Web site on the Internet is equally accessible. That means I can access a small one-person news blog as easily as the Rocky Web site. It also means that I can access AT&T-owned Web sites over Qwest infrastructure without Qwest interfering to make AT&T's content slower and less desirable. The current system of Net neutrality offers a level playing field where a small independent bookseller can compete head to head with giants like Barnes & Noble online. Large corporations like Qwest want to be gatekeepers that control which Web sites load fast, which ones load slowly and which ones won't load at all. That's what the Net neutrality fight is all about.
Lawrence Jones
Conifer