“Google has unveiled a plan aimed at eventually letting computer users determine whether Internet service providers (ISPs) are inappropriately blocking or slowing their work online,” Kim Dixon reports for Reuters. “The ISPs say they need to take reasonable steps to manage ever-growing traffic on their networks for the good of all users. Content and applications companies fear the providers have the power to discriminate, favoring some traffic over others.”
“Google will provide academic researchers with 36 servers in 12 locations in the United States and Europe to analyse data, said its chief Internet guru, Vint Cerf, known as the ‘father of the Internet,'” Dixon reports. “‘When an Internet application doesn’t work as expected or your connection seems flaky, how can you tell whether there is a problem caused by your broadband ISP (Internet service provider), the application, your PC (personal computer), or something else?’ Cerf wrote in a blog post. The effort aims to uncover the problem for users, Cerf said.”
“In a precedent-setting decision last year, the five-member Federal Communications Commission voted to uphold a complaint accusing Comcast of violating the FCC’s open-Internet principles by blocking file-sharing services, such as those that distribute video and television shows,” Dixon reports. “The case became a flash point in the Net neutrality debate. Comcast is fighting the decision in the courts.”
Dixon reports, “In a move likely to fuel further debate, another large cable company, Cox Communications, said yesterday it would begin testing a plan to give priority to time-sensitive traffic like Web page views and streaming videos.”
More in the full article here.
